‘Spirit of Cinema & Sports’ mini-festival celebrates films as driver of India-UK ties

London, Jan 18 (PTI) The High Commission of India in London is celebrating the ‘Spirit of Indian Cinema and Sports’ this weekend with a mini-festival of iconic films that showcase the country’s sporting achievements and spotlight the film industry as one of the drivers of closer India-UK ties. 

The festival, inaugurated by Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami on Friday evening, opened with a packed screening of Kabir Khan directed ‘83’ – which stars Ranveer Singh in the role of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev.

This is being followed up on Saturday by screenings of the 2016 box-office hit ‘Dangal’, starring Aamir Khan as wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat, and the 2007 hit ‘Chak De! India’ with Shah Rukh Khan in the role of a hockey coach inspired by the life of Mir Ranjan Negi.

“We’re doing this because one of the things that seems to have passed us by is the idea of how much film connects India and the UK; you need only to look at the range of offerings of some of our most successful movies to recognise how many of our movies have actually been shot in the UK,” Doraiswami said in his opening address.

“The film industry is essentially one of the big potential drivers of future partnership between India and the UK,” he said.

“If you look at the utilisation of studios in the UK, the creative industry in the UK, animation, gaming – the convergence between all of these sectors that constitute the new entertainment industry – the UK has a lot of what India looks for, and India has the scale and the speed at which these industries are evolving. So, there is a natural synergy in business for us in the film industry,” he said.

The High Commissioner referenced the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) being hosted in India and invited the UK to participate in the event in Mumbai in April with a “strong presence”.

“What we are really keen to do is to offer to you an opportunity to stay connected with us as we start a new process of promoting the India-UK relationship through film and through the creative industry,” he added. 

The free screenings, which attracted a diverse range of UK-based film buffs including members of the Indian diaspora, musicians and former cricketers, were held at London’s May Fair Hotel.

The Indian High Commission indicated plans for turning this into a more regular feature, with a screening room being considered for more such film festivals to showcase Indian cinema in all its multiple shades and nurture closer India-UK collaborations in the creative sector.

Doraiswami noted: “Film, for us in India, is that one medium that brings everything together. It brings together the telling of the story, performing art in the form of music and dance, and it brings together the entirety of a cathartic experience in two and a half to three hours. 

“The storytelling, therefore, is the full experience for us… and at the end of it, you must be able to come out and say paisa vasool – I got my money’s worth. That for us is the critical piece around filmmaking.”