S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Award winning and acclaimed singer was conferred the Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year 2016 today for his contribution to Indian Cinema at the inaugural event of 47th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) at Goa.
He holds the record in the Guinness Book for singing and recording more than 40,000 songs and has won the National Award six times He was honoured with the Padma Shri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2011) by the Government of India. This year,Balasubrahmanyam has completed five decades in the film industry.
Confirming the award, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Minister of Information & Broadcasting has said that cinema should reflect larger social concerns besides focusing on entertainment only. Films should illuminate the mind and heart, engaging audience both intellectually and emotionally. It should expose the people to ideas, problems and developments happening in the society and make them think critically and look for alternate solutions and actions. In a country like India, with its several social problems, a case could be made for social realism in our films. Cinema was a work of art and there has to be a certain ‘take away’ for the audience who gave over two hours of their valuable time for watching a film.
Internationally acclaimed Korean Writer and Director, Im Kwon Taek (Im Kwa Teek) was conferred ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. In his career span of five decades, he has directed more than 100 films and has been honoured with a number of awards, including Best Director Award at Cannes Film Festival, 2002 for his movie Chihwaseon (chhih-wasaion).
Republic of Korea was the partner country for IFFI 2016. Ramesh Sippy, eminent director known for his seminal contribution Sholay was the Chief Guest for the opening ceremony.
There would be 15 films from across the globe, including two Indian films from Indian Panorama section in the International Competition Section. Under the section ‘International Competition’, awards will be given for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor – Male, Best Actor – Female and Special Jury Award. This year, the festival line-up included 26 Asian and 108 Indian Premieres in the International Cinema section.
The opening film of the festival was the grand masterpiece, After-Image, a creation of veteran writer and director, late. Andrzej Wajda (andre wajda). This movie is a passionate biopic about avant-garde painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski (Wlady-slaw Strz-aim-inski). The closing film or 47th IFFI would be the South Korean official entry for the Academy Awards, The Age of Shadows, directed by Kim Jee Woon.
