Deepti Naval withdraws film from competition section of Kerala fest

Actress Deepti Naval has withdrawn her film Do paise ki dhoop, char aane ki baarish from the competition section of International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) beginning in Thiruvananthapuram on December 11.

The film, starring Manisha Koirala and Rajit Kapoor in the lead, marks Deepti's directorial debut.

IFFK director KR Mohanan here said Deepti had conveyed to the organisers that she was unable to travel to Kerala due to her mother's ill health and would not like to have the film screened in her absence.

This leaves only one Hindi film, Road to Sangam, by Amit Rai in the competition section. The film had won Audience Choice Award at the Mumbai Film Festival last month.

Road to Sangam, along with Malyalam films Sufi Paranja Katha and Madhyavenal are among the 14 entries from Afro-Asian and Latin American countries that will vie for the prestigious Golden Crow Pheasant Award carrying a cash prize of Rs10 lakh.

Best debut director would get Rs2 lakh and best director (Silver Crow Pheasant) would be richer by Rs3 lakh.

Mohanan said the organisers were planning to increase the prize money.

Kerala chief minister V S Achutanandan will inaugurate the festival in the presence of Guest of Honour Sharmila Tagore, he said.

Mohanan said Oscar winners AR Rahman, Resul Pookutty and Gulzar will be felicitated at the inauguration ceremony.

Noted filmmaker Mrinal Sen has also been invited since there will be a retrospective of his films. Apart from Sen, retrospectives of Mexican director Arturo Ripsten, Japanese director Mikio Naruse, french filmmaker Jacques Tati and Malyalam director Lohitadas will be held.

Mohanan, who is here for International Film Festival of India, said the Kerala festival expects to cross the 8,000-mark for delegate registration this year.

Currently, the festival is held across nine venues in the Kerala capital. "We are working towards getting a festival complex of our own," he said.

A major attraction this year would be constitution of a lifetime achievement award in international cinema.

It carries a cash prize of Rs2 lakh. A jury has been constituted to finalise the name of the winner which will be announced soon, Mohanan said.

He said the other highlights include commemoration of 50th year of Cuban revolution with a package of nine movies from the Caribbean nation in the `country focus' segment.