The inaugural edition of the Vishwarang International Film Festival, which is a part of the week-long Tagore International Literature & Arts Festival ‘Vishwarang 2020’, has kick-started with great zeal. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event is being held online from 23 to 26 November.

The Day 1 of Vishwarang International Film Festival was attended by distinguished personalities such as actor Mohan Agashe; Filmmaker, conservator-restorer and the Founder of Film Heritage Foundation Shivendra Singh Dungarpur; Vishwarang2020’s Director Santosh Choubey; Vishwarang 2020’s Co-Directors Leeladhar Mandloi and Siddharth Chaturvedi as well as Vishwarang International Film Festival’s Director Sudeep Sohni.

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One of the key highlights of the first day of Vishwarang International Film Festival was a Masterclass with renowned actor Mohan Agashe on the subject ‘Actor and Life’.

During his address, Agashe said, “I have never felt the need to choose. I believe that if we have two eyes, two ears, two parts of our nose, two halves of a brain, a right arm and a left arm, a right leg and a left leg, then we need to be both positive and negative to live life. And in a country like India, where earning a living by doing what one likes is not guaranteed, one needs to have professions- one to survive and the other to make it worth.”

The four-day unique film festival commenced with a film screening by director and documentary maker KM Chaitanya in fond remembrance of Kannada actor, director and playwright Girish Karnad and a film screening by Indian film director Jahanu Barua in the memory of Sahitya Akademi awardee Assamese writer Indira Goswami.

The inaugural day of the festival also witnessed a ‘Science Film Screening’ session featuring ‘Naula’, which is an award-winning documentary on traditional Himalayan water resources directed by Shriniwas Oli. The screening of Turkish film ‘Zer’, which is directed by renowned Kurdish film director, scriptwriter and producer Kazim Oz, was another major session the day.

The evening of Day 1 of the Film Festival witnessed the screening of some of the winning entries of the Festival’s Short Film Competition as well as the interview of the winning film’s director. The audience had a gala time watching a Hindi short film called ‘Sondhayni’, which is directed by Seral Murmu, who is an award-winning tribal filmmaker from Jharkhand.