PUNE: The top awards at the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF), scheduled from January 9, would be bestowed on television producer and FTII chairman Brijendra Pal Singh, veteran actor
Vikram Gokhale and music director
Usha Khanna.
A number of film screenings and a few workshops will be hosted at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) to commemorate the institute’s 60th year since establishment.
Filmmaker Jabbar Patel, who is the festival director, said, “BP Singh and his team revolutionized Indian television by creating a show like CID, which ran for over 20 years. You must also remember that he is also an alumnus of FTII.”
Singh’s ‘CID team’, including Shivaji Satam, Aditya Shrivastava, and Dayanand Shetty, will be present for the inaugural function on January 9 at Balgandharva Rangmandir. Patel said the organizers had asked the FTII to nominate an alumni for the award.
“The PIFF organizers did ask us to nominate a distinguished alumnus, which is why we nominated Singh. His credentials are too powerful to ignore. He passed out from our institute in 1972 and he created a show like CID. Any insinuation of a conflict of interest is wrong,” FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola told TOI.
PIFF organizers on Friday also announced the opening film at the festival, “The Weasel’s Tale” by award-winning Argentinian filmmaker Juan Jose Campanella. The selection for the Marathi film competition section at the festival includes acclaimed films like Anandi Gopal by Sameer Vidhwans and Tujhya Aaila by Sujay Dahake.
Kainthola confirmed that some events scheduled as part of the PIFF Forum had been moved out of FTII to other screening venues. Scheduled screenings and some workshops would still be held at the institute’s main theatre and other facilities.
Patel, speaking at the news conference, said the events were moved out of FTII to avoid any risks.
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