The 14th Jamshedpur International film festival gets underway here on Saturday evening with the screening of Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire in Hindi.
Though Jharkhand Human Rights Conference (JHRC) has proposed to stage a demonstration against the screening as it says the movie is in bad taste projecting the dark side (poverty) of the country, the Celluloid Chapter is confident of going ahead with the inauguration and screening without any interruption.
?I think freedom of expression is a human right and I think they will have the sense to not to disturb a good movie,? is what Celluloid Chapter president Sanjay Choudhry said when told about the JHRC plan.
Czech ambassador to India, Hynek Kmoniek, who is here to inaugurate the film festival, said it was for the first time since 9/11 (2001) that the world has seen a positive Muslim likeable hero in Slumdog Millionaire which is a sort of a break from the terrible hangover continuing from 9/11.
?I find it extremely important that the Oscars has gone to the movie which has been made with EU, French and Indian money and is about India and is also about a positive, young Muslim, which is very, very important,” Kmoniek added.
The ambassador described the 2004-produced award winning sole Czech entry ?Rebelove? as a musical love story of the years 1967 & 1968. The film is directed by Fllip Rene.
Kmoniek said the movie was selected as it is a relatively new production and it conveys something about our (Czech) history.
Compared with more than 1,000 movies being made in India every year, the Czech Republic with a population of 10 million, which is less than Delhi?s, makes only around 15 movies a year.