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For the first time ever, Vietnam is hosting an Indian film festival!
The Indian Film Festival-Vietnam kicked off on December 18 in Ho Chi Minh City. Organized by the Indian Embassy in Vietnam and the Directorate of Film Festivals for the Ministry of I&B, the festival will celebrate six days of Indian cinema by screening popular films like ‘3 Idiots’, ‘Jodhaa Akbar’, ‘Maqbool’, and ‘Wake Up Sid’ among others.
The project was conceived by Smt. Preeti Saran, the Indian Ambassador to Vietnam, in an effort to develop a deeper understanding of Indian cinema and culture among the Vietnamese audience. The festival also presents an opportunity for a new generation of Indian filmmakers to re-launch their films on big screens in Vietnam.
The Indian film fraternity has turned out in droves to support the festival. Big names like Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and Umesh Shukla are said to be in attendance. The festival is also supported by the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Says RC Dalal, Curator of IFF Worldwide,
“Earlier this year we did Indian Film Festival Russia and now it’s Indian Film Festival Vietnam. The most amazing thing about Indian film festival is that wherever we went, we found the same amount of people’s love for Bollywood movies that you will find in India.”
Film festivals like these, along with showcases at bigger international festivals like Cannes, Toronto, and Berlin, have helped world-class films find a wide international audience that otherwise would not have been exposed to foreign cinema. The organizers hope that the Indian Film Festival-Vietnam becomes an annual event in coming years.
