DIFF 2014 opens here, Ghai gets lifetime achievement award

With director Subhash Ghai being given the prestigious lifetime achievement award, the third edition of Delhi International Film Festival (DIFF) opened here today amid much fanfare.
The eight-day long festival was inaugurated by Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay among other dignitaries at the NDMC convention centre.
An audio-visual presentation of the ace filmmaker's more than three decades of work was shown at the ceremony before Upadhyay gave away the award to Ghai.
"Thanks to DIFF for honouring me with this award which is also known as Qutab Minar award. Thanks to all the guests present here.
"I went to Mumbai to become an actor but ended up making the movie 'Kalicharan' which was appreciated by the masses and from there I went on to produce films... Films are not about only entertainment but play an important role in creating awareness," Ghai said after receiving the honour.

Upadhyay feels cinema should promote our culture.

"DIFF is an attempt to promote cinema, art and culture. Films are most important for everyone of us and it should be promoted in events like DIFF. We don't need language to understand a movie. Films should promote our culture," Upadhyay said in his speech.
The other guests who made it to the event are Noida Film City founder Sandeep Marwah, NDMC chairman Jalaj Srivastava, festival president Ram Kishore Parcha and commissioner of Income Tax Sangeeta Gupta.
Naghmeh Shirkhan's 'The Neighbor, which chronicles the Iranian women's life in migration, was screened this evening as the opening film.

With Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh being the focus countries, the film festival boasts an interesting line up of 250 films films across 45 nations.
Last year's Pakistan's official entry to Oscars 'Zinda Bhaag', co-directed by Meenu Gaur and Farjad Nabi and starring Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah in lead, will bring the curtains down on the film festival.
The festival will pay homage to departed talents Abdur Rashid Kardar and Chetan Anand.