Comedy short film festival to be held in Bengaluru

Everyone loves a good laugh, but comedy as a genre in films continues to be underrepresented, often relegated to a totally disconnected track in the narrative. But that could change, with the introduction of a film festival for comedy shorts instituted by SD Arvinda, the grandson of Hasya Chakravarthi Narasimharaju, as part of his attempt to make comedy more mainstream. “On my grandfather’s 95th birth anniversary, it seemed apt to announce the Bangalore International Comedy Shorts (BICS), a film festival for comedy shorts that will, hopefully, take off in November this year. We are now open for entries and are looking at participation from filmmakers with shorts of no more than 20-minute duration. Depending on the number of entries, we will conduct a 4-5 day festival at centres across Bengaluru, with the opening and closing ceremonies to be held at my brother, Avinash Narasimharaju’s, studio,” explains Arvinda.The festival, he adds, will be curated by Anand Varadaraj of the Suchitra Film Society, and will have seminars and interactions with filmmakers, as well as standup comedy acts, apart from the screenings. “We want filmmakers from across the globe to participate in the fest with their subtitled submissions. At the end of the event, we will give away a new set of awards instituted in my grandfather’s name, honouring the best film, director, comedian and screenplay. While the best film category will be for Kannada shorts, the rest of the categories are open for films in other languages. We are hoping to conduct this as an annual event,” Arvinda adds.