The second day of the film festival to mark the 100th year of Indian Cinema at the Nehru stadium here reverberated with the tunes of Kannada music and dance.
More than 200 professional dancers showcased Kannada cinema which was the highlight of Sunday’s event.
Yesteryear actor Saroja Devi was the star among the 50 film artistes, directors, producers and film personalities of south India who graced the occasion.
Actors Kamal Haasan, Ramesh Arvind, Sivarajkumar, Karnataka Home Minister K V George and Minister for Women and Child Development Umashree were also among the audience. The auditorium, with a capacity of more than 8,000 seats, was packed to capacity not only by Kannada-speaking people but also by the locals, who cheered all the programmes right from the beginning.
However, spectators were disappointed by the absence of their favourite actors, including Rajinikanth, Prakash Raj and Arjun.
“We have organised a total of 72 programmes which include dance, comedy skit, felicitation to cine artiste and screening Kannada cinema clippings,” noted director and the organising chief Rajendra Kumar Arya told Deccan Herald.
“The reception and atmosphere was excellent. It was a great platform to showcase our performance,” he said.
However, the director was also upset by the absence of Rajinikanth and Prakash Raj.
“They might be busy with their schedule,” he added. Arya rued that the time was too short to showcase the performance.
The same evening, the venue was taken over by the Telugu film industry as the artistes from the neighbouring state assembled together to celebrate their success.
On Monday, the members of the Malayalam film fraternity will come together for a mega entertainment programme, which will be presided over by Union Minister for Overseas Indians Affairs Vayalar Ravi and Kerala Rural Development Minister K C Joseph.