South Asian Film Festival begins in Goa

Panaji: South Asian Film Festival (SAFF) began here today with the screening of movie ‘Kashmir ki Kali’, which was shown as a special tribute to late Shammi Kapoor.

The festival was declared open by Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat in the presence of Randhir Kapoor and Rajeev Kapoor, the scion of Kapoor family and representatives of South Asian Countries who were present at the ceremony. The four-day long festival is expected to screen 50 movies from the South Asian continent. Declaring the festival open, Kamat said that Goa has become destination of the film festivals and state looks at hosting more such successful festivals. Randhir Kapoor was felicitated by State Chief Secretary Sanjay Srivastava honouring contribution of Kapoor family to Indian Cinema. "Cinema knows no boundaries. It’s just an emotion that we create. We should have lot of cultural exchange amongst the south Asian nations," Kapoor said responding to the felicitation. Pooja Bhatt, addressing audience, said that there were rumours that SAFF does not receive much response compared to International Film Festival of India (IFFI). "But the full house auditorium here is a testimony of the popularity of the festival," she added. The representatives from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives were felicitated at the inaugural function. PTI