NEW DELHI:Odisha Governor Muridhar Chandrakant Bhandare has urged the Directorate of Film Festivals to hold a film festival in Odisha and promised it would turn out to be the among the best in the world including Cannes.

Speaking at the closing of the Odia Film Festival in the capital, Bhandare expressed satisfaction that the Directorate had marked 75 years of Odia cinema as part of the International Film Festival of India in November 2010 and had now held this festival in the capital in the same connection.

He said cinema can be used to give powerful social messages and can be an instrument of social change.
 

He hailed the policy of the union Government to hold festivals of Panorama films in different parts of the country and in towns other than the metros.

Referring to the platinum jubilee of Odia cinema, he said the cinema in the state had had a gruelling journey from ‘Sitah Bibah’ in 1936. But the state was now making good progress and had made as many as 24 films in 2010. He also said Odisha had given cinema the recognition of an industry in 1974, much before the centre did. The platinum jubilee was a tribute to cinegoers.

Referring to the large number of film personalities he had felicitated, he said these should encourage these personalities to attain greater heights.

Earlier, DFF Director General AK Saxena said cinema was recognised as a tool of national integration and this was the rationale behind festivals of this kind, which had been attended in large numbers by non-Odians.

The film personalities from Odisha felicitated on the occasion included filmmakers Nirad Mohapatra whose film ‘Maya Mriga’ had been the opening film, AK Bir whose film ‘Adi Mimansa’ was the closing film, Susant Misra, Kapilas Bhuyan, Dilip Patnaik, Santosh Gaur, Prashant Nanda, A K Parija, and Chittaranjan Tripathi.