Glimpses of Rajasthan Film Festival 2017
Date: 14th – 16th September 2017
Venue: Deep Smriti Auditorium Jaipur, Raj. India
The fifth edition of Rajasthan Film Festival commenced on 14th September and continued till 16th September at Deep Smriti Auditorium, Jaipur.
In order to further cultivate a Rajasthani culture among today’s youth, every year Rajasthan Film Festival organizes various ethnic activities in numerous schools and colleges. During the three day festival, on the first day, a Rajasthani theme based dance competition was organized for students. Almost forty-four institutions came together on our monumental platform and took part in cultivating Rajasthani culture. Scores of students danced the Ghoomar and Kalbeliya to their hearts’ delight to celebrate the being of Rajasthan. J.D. Maheshwari fulfilled chairmanship for this event while actress Neha Shree, singer Mohit Gaur, choreographer Nikki Thapa, and writer Kunal Verma posed as the judges. Maharani Girls’ College bagged the first prize in this competition, taking home with them a cash prize of twenty-one thousand rupees along with the trophy.
On the second day, a discussion and press conference was organized to talk about the condition and direction of Rajasthani cinema. It began by honoring the revolutionary Balji Bhurji by showcasing a sand art film on him, made by Mahendra Gaur. This twenty-five-minute film glorified the voice that Balji Bhurji raised against the Englishmen in 1857. Next up, actors, directors, artists, technicians, writers, and all persons involved in Rajasthani cinema discussed various aspects of Rajasthani cinema and brought to attention the importance of Rajasthani as a language and culture. Inspired by this discourse, TV’s famous S K Surana stated that Rajasthani films would be aired on television without any tariff. Through the medium of satellite TV, the Rajasthani culture will reach every home through films and nothing could be better for the progress and growth of Rajasthani cinema. The aforementioned conference was headed by Chief Justice Mahendra Singh Raghav along with founder Sanjana Sharma, who threw light on the main proceedings of the film festival.
The much-awaited awards night finally arrived on the third day, at the Deep Smriti Auditorium in Mansarovar. To commemorate Rajasthani language, arts, culture and cinema, this year too, Kanchan Cassette and Series orchestrated the Rajasthan Film Festival with the thought that an award is a tool to boost the morale of artists so that they can continue their hard work and step ahead in their career, and take Rajasthan’s film industry to great heights. The chief guest of the event was Bollywood’s famous writer, Jaiprakash Chowksey. To begin the programme on a special note, a sand art film on APJ Abdul Kalam’s life was presented, which was much appreciated by the audience. Assamese sand artist Robin’s hands brought the film to life, which was created by Mahendra Gaur. Awards in seventeen categories were given to talented and brilliant artists of Rajasthan’s film industry.The Best Film award was awarded to the film “Nani Bai Ro Mayro”.
Notable guests of this function were Gajendra Verma, Roje Khan, Surendra Pal, Komal Nahta, Aniruddh Dave, Himanshu Soni, Rohit Purohit, Preeti Jhingiyani, Gulabo Sapera. Aman Verma and Mahendra Gaur hosted the event with grandeur. Anirudh Dave, Rohit Purohit, Himanshu Soni ,RJ Mohit as co-hosts brought life to the evening. The jury for this year’s award ceremony consisted of Naresh Malhotra, Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt, and Indrajeet Bansal.
Padma Bhushan Vishwamohan Bhatt was also saluted with the Lifetime Achievement award in2017. Apart from awards, entertainment was fully catered for as the spectators enjoyed a vast expression of Rajasthani culture and language through dance and song.