Indian films all set to enthrall NYC
  
Lalit K Jha
  
Monday, November 5, 2007: (New York):
  
Said to be the largest South Asian film festival outside India, the 7th edition of the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) Film Festival is all set to hit New York later this week bringing the finest selection of independent and Bollywood movies to the Big Apple.
  
The film festival, which didn't have a great beginning six years ago with the 9/11 attacks, had just 12 films to showcase. This year it has as many as 52 films, documentaries and short films for the viewers.
  
Shivajee Chandrabhushan has a bachelor degree in Sociology. He began his career producing music videos for Indian TV. But it was his interest in photography and travelling that led him to Ladakh, where Frozen was filmed. Frozen is his first feature length film. He is 35 years old and lives in Mumbai.
  
Given the initial response from the New York film buffs, more than 5,000 people are likely to attend the five-day film festival starting November 7 with the screening of the Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed Saawariya of Sony Pictures.
  
"We got a fantastic line up of films," Aroon Shivdasani, Executive Director of the Indo American Arts Council told NDTV.Com in an exclusive interview.
  
These films are from a number of languages including Punjabi, Malayalam, Hindi, English and Bengali.
  
Prominent among the films to be screened during the festival include, The Last Lear, Valley of Flowers, Missed Call, Via Darjeeling, Grahanam, Apna Asmaan, The Voyers, Mansarovar, Frozen, AIDS Jaago and Gandhi My Father.
  
Indeed, the film festival has come a long way since its launch.
  
"We almost gave up when it (9/11) happened; we thought we have to cancel. Then (the then New York Mayor Rudy) Giuliani gave a call to all New Yorkers to help revive the city. We said let us continue. We really did not know if we would get an audience," said Shivdasani, adding: "By the time, we closed, we had overflowing audience."
  
Looking back at the first edition of the film festival, she said: "We were lucky to have supporters like Ismail Merchant, Deepa Mehta and Meera Nair." The festival started with Ismail Merchant and closed with Meera Nair's Monsoon Wedding. However, over the years the festival added documentaries and short stories.
  
"We grew in visibility. We also have been extremely conscious of the type of films we show and how we choose them." In addition to this, she said the Indian filmmakers, the Diaspora, the independent filmmakers have moved into the state of maturity.
  
"Masters like Mani Ratnam, Rituparno Ghosh and Buddhadev Das Gupta were masters and would remain masters, but there are several of the others independent Diaspora film makers who started with identity issues and now have moved into world issues that concerns every one," she said.
  
The film festival has also been successful in achieving its mission, she said because of the support given by some of the celebrities like Salman Rushdie, Meera Nair, Shashi Tharoor, Deepa Mehta and Madhur Zafrey.
  
"People like them really care what happens to the young Indian artists and showcase Indian artists in North America to build awareness among them," Shivdasani said.
  
Shivdasani said the closing night is going to be a special event this year. Besides the screening of The Last Lear by Rituparno Ghosh, the gala would feature an award ceremony in various categories -- best film, best director, best actor and best actress.
  
"Then we have a few other awards like People's Choice Award which is being given by Verizon, the best documentary and best show," she said.