National Award winning films need better platform: Jahnu Barua
By IANSWednesday, November 25, 2009
PANAJI - Noted Assamese filmmaker Jahnu Barua rues that there is no mechanism to screen National Award films in different parts of the country.
“It’s sad that there is no system in the country where people from different regions can see National Award winning films,” said Barua, who has won several National Awards for films like “Aparoopa” and “Bonani”.
Barua stressed that evolving such a system was a critical need of the hour.
“People at the helm need to be pressurised so that they get tempted to see each other’s best work,” he said.
The director was in Goa to attend the special segment — ‘75 years of Assamese cinema’ — at the ongoing 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI.
Barua, who has emerged as the international face of Assamese cinema, praised Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, father of Assamese cinema whose 1935 movie “Joymoti” became country’s third talkie film.
“We cherish the struggle of the stalwart Jyoti Prasad whose hard work has not gone unnoticed,” he said.
Barua also forayed into Bollywood with the critically acclaimed Anupam Kher starrer “Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara” in 2005 and his next in Hindi is “Har Pal”. Starring Preity Zinta and Shiney Ahuja, it hasn’t hit the screens yet.
