Amshan Kumar, a national award winning filmmaker who had several award winning titles to his credit and Gajendra Ahire who has 46 films to his credit spoke their minds. Ahire is one of those rare filmmakers whose films have been shortlisted seven times in the Indian Panorama Section of the International Film Festival of India.
Amshan Kumar admitted that this was his second visit IFFI as the director of the film featured in the Indian Panorama section.
"IFFI has been going from strength to strength over the years but the film will be shown twice - once at the Indian Panorama section and once for the general audience. I've made documentaries mostly but this is my second feature film born out of the experience in rural areas. Whenever I go to villages, I ask them the problems they face. I was surprised to know that they wanted a burial site. So Manusangada is a story based on that," he explained. Manusangada is the only Tamil film to feature in the Panorama section
"My association with IFFI goes back a long way. It was in 2004 when my Marathi film Not Only Mrs Raut was showcased at the festival and since then I have been attending the prestigious film festivals. I've watched several films and I've learnt a lot as a student. I've understood new format of cinema also. It's a growing learning experience," said Ahire, director of Pimpal.
Manusangada and Pimpal steal the show
The Indian Panorama section was proud to showcase two brilliant films - Manusangada and Pimpal from different language industries at IFFI in the presence of the movie directors, Amshan Kumar and Gajendra Ahire who interacted with the audience.
