BIFFes kicks off with tribute to Ambareesh

The 11th Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) began with much fan fair in the city on Friday.

With global film buffs thronging the Orion Mall, the festival paid tribute to late Kannada actor Ambareesh by screening his movie ‘Elu Suttina Kote’ that saw the equally good crowd as the other films screened on the first day.

‘Ananthu v/s Nusrath’, ‘Smashana Mouna’ and ‘Neeru’ were the other
Kannada movies screened. “I’d like to thank the jury who come up with mind-blowing collections. Not one film can be ignored on the list. We find it harder to choose,” said Narayana Shastry, a Mangaluru-based theatre artist.

The most sought-after movies on day 1 included ‘Rust’ (Portuguese), ‘3 Faces’ (Persian), and ‘The Frozen Fire’ (Sinhalese).

Two Academy award winners for the best movies - ‘Roma’ (Spanish) and ‘Capernaum’ (Arabic) - were also screened on the first day. 

A film buff from Kolkata was happy that all the movies are screened in one place. He also shares a special bonding with the event for several years. “This is a boon to outsiders like us who find it harder to move around different places to watch the films. This is the best arrangement by the authorities. They’ve given us the opportunity to watch movies that are difficult to access. I don’t think the jury members have compromised on the quality,” said Shyam Das.

The event also featured an interaction with Bollywood movie maker Rahul Rawail, who regaled the audience with tales of his initial days with mentor Raj Kapoor. He also explained the change of trends in Bollywood from director-domination to hero-domination.