Bollywood kiddie films get special place at children festival

Stanley ka Dabba, I am Kalam and Chillar Party are the three entries from India out of 170 films from 40 countries to be screened at the 17th International Children's Film Festival this year.

The festival, also known as Golden Elephant, will be CFSI from November 14 to November 20, 2011 in Hyderabad. The festival is held every two years showcasing feature films, short films, animation films from all over the world.

"Bollywood has recently seen a spate of children films. But we want to make it a regular feature for children between the age group of 6-16 years who are faced with a rage of reality TV - introduce them to films which are more relevant, informative and educative for their age," said Nandita Das, Actor and Chairperson, Children's Film Society, India (CFSI).

This year the festival is focused on China and will have a special section dedicated to showcasing films directed by China's Children's Films Association.

"There is a lot of focus on family films in our country, unlike in countries like China, Denmark, Netherland who focus on children films," Das said.

For this year's festival, the CFSI executive council will find Bollywood bigwigs like Vishal Bharadwaj, Gulzar, Mohan Agashe, Shilpa Rao and others to help encourage and promote a culture of children film-making in the industry.

"There are children in remote parts of India who can only dream about watching motion pictures or films. Our aim is to reach out to a lot more people from different strata of societies," Nandita said, adding that they expected a total of 1.5 lakh children to watch the films screened at the festival.

To help promote and market children's films, FICCI has been brought on board to rope in corporates and channels to promote the Festival and the movies being screened.

FICCI's Munjal Shroff said, "We are looking forward to aerially push for the event. Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network will also promote it."

With a budget of Rs five crores, the festival aims at roping in NGOs, schools and individuals to be a part of the week-long festival to be held at a picturesque venue of Shilpramum, Hyderabad.

Atleast 10 children per district, mostly from the underprivileged background will be invited to attend, and lodging facilities, dormitories will be provided, she said.