KIFF to consider rare languages films in the competition section?

Films

that are made in Indian languages that are unheard of is always in want of an audience. Giving wings to the dreams of the directors, cast and crew of these film,

Santanu Ganguly

, curator of the

Unheard India

: Rare Language Indian Feature Films section of the

Kolkata International Film Festival

(

KIFF

), has been arranging screenings for them.
The Unheard India section celebrated its sixth year, this time in the 27th edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival. Unfortunately in the last edition, due to the pandemic, the Unheard India section was not part of the film festival. But thankfully, with the situation improving gradually, the film festival also got back its own character.
The attractions of this year were the Rajbanshi language from the northern part of

West Bengal

and Kurumba language film from Kerala. For the first time the Rajbanshi language film from West Bengal, Bihaan (Tune of Faith), directed by Saurabh Saha, was screened at the festival. Also, for the first time any feature-length film being made in Kurumba language titled, Mmmmm… (The Sound of Pain), directed by Vijeesh Mani, found a place at the screening.
"It's been an incredible journey so far for the Unheard India - Rare Language Indian Cinema section at the Kolkata International Film Festival. Every year, the quality of the films are improving. This year, we have shown the first-made Kurumba language film Sounds of Pain. It is a language of the aboriginal people from Kerala - Tamil Nadu - Karnataka's Nilgiri belt area. Another attraction was the first time screened Rajbanshi language film from Bengal in this section. West Bengal cabinet minister Birbaha Hansda, came to the festival as an actress in 2019 and this year as the minister to promote the Santhali film industry as well as present the Santhali and Rajbanshi films of West Bengal. I am always thankful to Goutam Ghose, who supports the concept of the section, and that's why KIFF is the only film festival in India to promote the

rare languages

. I have sent my proposal to the KIFF executive committee, that from next time onwards, this section also should be in the competition," Santanu said.