Several mainstream producers stay away from making films for children: Mukesh Khanna

Hyderabad: Offering a motley of over 1000 films from across the globe, the 19th International Children's Film Festival of India (ICFFI) hits screens here tomorrow. Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore will preside over the

inaugural function as the Chief Guest, ICFFI's fest director and CEO of Children's Film Society of India (CFSI) Shravan Kumar said.

As many as 1,200 films from 80 countries will be screened during the week-long festival, he said, adding that 19 entries of Telugu language have been received and six of them have been selected for screening.

Kumar apprised that there is also a competition 'Little Directors' category where films made by children will be selected.

He said 37 entries (films) made by children from seven nations have been received, adding that in the last edition, around 123 entries had come from India.

Observing that there is a long way to go in improving cinema for children in the country, actor and CFSI Chairman

Mukesh Khanna today said CFSI has recently approved nine good scripts. Noting that several mainstream producers stayed away from making films for children, he said movies with entertaining factor can be commercially successful as well.

"A children's film can do bigger business even than normal films. Western countries have shown. Harry Potter, Spiderman, Batman..," he said.

Though the budget and distribution available to Indian filmmakers may not be adequate to make a film like 'Harry Potter', they can still make good films for children like Iran does, Khanna said.

He said that noted Bollywood celebrities like director Raj Kumar Santoshi and actor Anupam Kher have shown interest to work with CFSI and that they are ready to partner with filmmakers, who are willing to make good movies for children. Khanna, whose TV serial "Shaktiman" became a huge hit among kids during the late 90s, said CFSI will launch a mobile App that would facilitate viewers to watch children's films.

When asked why a permanent building could not come up for the festival here as planned earlier, Special Officer of 19th ICFFI Kishan Rao said, there are various reasons to it and hoped that there would be further decision on the matter with Khanna taking over as CFSI Chairman.