The third 3rd Kalinga International Film Festival(KIFF) was inaugurated amid a lot of fan fair. The central attraction of the occasion was none other than Padma Bhusan Anupam Kher, noted Actor and Chairman FTII, Pune along with the team of Ranchi Diaries Movie.
Padama Bhusan Anupam Kher, who graced the glittering cultural evening as Chief Guest captivated the audience with his inspiring speech. Hailing from a small town, he evoked his pain stricken struggle to be an actor in her initial days. In this context, he said that, while the small town people have dreams, big town people have targets.
“I was not a good student and used to frequent cinema halls and gradually fell in love with good films. Films gave me the moment of the magic and I was a part of that magic. My world of dream could expanded after passed the Drama School with a Gold Medal”, Mr. Kher said in reminiscing his school days.
He added, my love and learning the craft of acting led me to shape my dream in Bollywood. I had 37 Rupees when I came to Mumbai to act in films but I had unlimited dreams. Most of my times were spent at railway station, footpaths and beaches languishing in hunger and scarcity. But I never gave up as I had learnt from my elders ,
“if you dream, work hard and be honest, all of your dreams would come true one day”.
I had to wait three years until signing the first film. However I came to limelight in the movie ‘Saransh’ which was in fact the turning point in my career. Had I not signed for Saransh, I would not have been here before you today. Eventually I got Film Fare Best Actor award for my role in Saransh. At the felicitation ceremony, holding the trophy , I was thinking ‘my dream came true’. In this context, advising the students he said, don’t ever stop dreaming.
Before gracing the KIFF ceremony, Mr. Kher visited KISS and addressed to the students. He added, ‘all through my life I have got numerous awards and felicitations from many organizations, but the love and honor I got from the 27000 tribal children at KISS are simply unmatched across the world.
Gracing the occasion as Honorary Guest, Mr. Gangakumar, I.A.S. and Director at Government of India said that all forms of ‘Art’ can be seen through films and we have our emotional attachments with films. He added, “this sort of festival should be organized at regular intervals to promote art and culture in a much broader way.”
At the outset, the Founder of KIIT & KISS Prof. Achyuta Samanta introduced the guests and bestowed bountiful admiration on Padma Bhusan Anupam Kher for his kind presence at the ceremony. He also praised Sattwik Mohanty,the Director of the Film ‘Ranchi Diaries‘ and hailed him as a pride of Odisha.
Among others, the Director of KIIT School of Film and Media Sciences, Prof. Himanshu Khatua briefed about the background and objectives of the KIFF. The Director of the film ‘Ranchi Diaries’ Sattwik Mohanty and the leading actress of this Movie, Soundarya Sharma enthralled the euphoric audience with their few but enchanting words. At the end, the Registrar of KIIT University, Prof. Sasmita Samanta offered Vote of Thanks.