HumaraMovie’s Shuruaat Ka Interval festival premieres at PVR

Preeti Ali

Preeti Ali, founder of HumaraMovie that is known to promote young talent, joined hands with PVR Director’s Rare for the recently-concluded Shuruaat Ka Interval, a short film festival. Ali, who has had the experience of working as an assistant director in the past, got together eight short films helmed by different film-makers, all of which have a common thread— Interval. “We have been organising a small scale screening of short films since the last two years and this year, we thought a film festival would give budding film-makers and short film enthusiasts the perfect platform to showcase their talent. So, I spoke to Shiladitya Bora from PVR and after a few meetings, all of us were excited to showcase these films in the form of a 96-minute capsule, for a week, at specific PVR theatres,” stated Ali adding that it was then decided to call for entries from all over India. Out of the initial 100 entries, 24 were shortlisted, and were made to write a script on the topic of interval. After that process, eight were finally selected.
“They also got the opportunity to get mentored by established directors like Vikramaditya Motwane, Imtiaz Ali, Anand Gandhi and Vikas Bahl, which was great. I am thankful that these directors, who have also gone through a similar struggle to get their first film released, took time out to guide and promote the upcoming film-makers,” added Ali while stating that her favourites from the capsule include Ayan by Amrit Raj Gupta, The Last Audition by Krishan Hooda, Interval 3D by Palash Vaswani and Gatekeeper by Atanu Mukherjee.
Ali also added that out of the initial 100 entries, there are around 10 directors, whose work has been appreciated and who will get a chance to showcase their potential in a feature film. “We are working with a few of them on new projects, which will be feature films. So, that is the next step for us,” mentioned Ali.

CBFC chief under the scanner

Rakesh Kumar, CEO of Censor Board of Film Certification has come under the CBI scanner for allegedly demanding Rs.70,000 from a certified agent for clearing a regional film.
According to a source, an authorised agent for censor certification had approached CBI alleging that another agent Shripati Mishra has been demanding Rs.70,000 on behalf of Rakesh Kumar for issuing censor certificate for regional language film of Chhattisgarh Mor Dauki Ke Bihav. An Indian Railways Personnel Officer (IRPS) Rakesh Kumar has joined as CEO of CBFC in January this year.
The producers of the film had wanted an urgent certificate as they wanted to release their film on August 15. CBI laid a trap to catch the suspects. “Mishra was trapped while demanding and accepting of Rs.70,000. Sarvesh Jaiswal, advisory panel member, CBFC, Mumbai was also nabbed while accepting the bribe amount. Both these accused are arrested and will be produced in the competent court in due course of time,” revealed a CBI official.

— PTI