Mumbai : 26 January 2023 The Shanghai Cooperation Organization festival will commence tommorow with the world premiere the Tamil film “Appatha”. The film is directed by Padma awardee and National Award winning filmmaker Priyadarshan while Jio Studios and Wide Angle Creations are coproducers.The film features National Award-winning actor Urvashi in the lead role and will be benchmarked as her 700th film and 51 years in the Indian film industry. Director Priyadarshan has reunited with veteran actress Urvashi after 28 years, post the film Midhunam in 1993.On Appatha opening the festival, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said, “We are immensely proud to host the SCO film festival to mark the Chairmanship of India at SCO for 2022-23. India’s goal of organising the festival is to showcase the diversity of films and various styles of film making from from the SCO region. We also aim to build cinematic partnerships, have exchange of programmes, nurture young filmmaking talent and act as a bridge between the cultures of this unique region. We are delighted to commence the festival with the world premiere of Shri Priyadarshan’s film Appatha. It is a touching story of love and our bond with our pets. The SCO film festival is all set to be a melting pot of myriad vibrant cultures, spectacle of aesthetic sensibilities and sheer cinematic excellence over the next five days beginning on 27th January”Sharing his delight at the film opening the festival Priyadarshan, Director, Appatha said “We are honoured Appatha has been selected as the opening film on this prestigious occasion. I would like to thank my producers Jio Studios and Wide Angle Creations for bringing this simple and lovely story to me. It has been a pleasure collaborating on this film and wonderful to be working with a phenomenal talent like Urvashi on her milestone 700th film. Appatha is different from anything I have attempted earlier and I am looking forward to seeing how the audience react to it.”The SCO Film Festival Film Screenings and sessions will take place at two locations in Mumbai, 4 auditoriums at the Film Division Complex at Pedder Road and one NFDC Theater at Nehru Planetarium Building at Worli. A total of 57 Films will be showcased at the SCO Film Festival from SCO countries. In the Competition Section, 14 feature films are competing and will be screened and the Non-Competition section will showcase 43 Films. The films are dubbed or subtitled in English for the benefit of the jury and local audience.Delegate registrations can be done online at sco.nfdcindia.com or physically at the festival venue. at INR 300 + GST for the festival or INR 100 per day. Registration for students is free of charge on a valid identity card.
