With a view to promote film and cinema industries in small states like Jharkhand during 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Jharkhand Day was celebrated on Saturday at Panjim in Goa. The IFFI has begun on November 20and will continue till November 28.

Governor of Goa Mridula Sinha inaugurated the Jharkhand Day by lighting the lamp in the presence of Special Guest, State Tourism Minister Amar Kumar Bauri and Union Information and Broadcasting Secretary Amit Khare alongwith Jharkhand Chief Secretary Sudhir Tripathi; Secretary Dept of Tourism Rahul Sharma; Secretary IPRD cum Secretary to CM Sunil Kumar Barnwal; Director, IPRD Ram Lakhan Prasad Gupta and Director Culture Ashok Kumar Singh.

“First time in the history of IFFI, states have been included to explore possibility of promoting art and culture through film and cinema. During this festival Jharkhand has been made a focus State. This is golden opportunity for Jharkhand. The State has huge talents in the field of art and culture,” said Syed Rashid Akhtar, Deputy Director, IPRD, who was present on the accasion.

Elaborating on the objective of celebration of Jharkhand Day on the occasion Akhtar said, “This is an effort to publicise and promote film policy of Jharkhand.”

Seven Jharkhandi films were screened on the day and three cultural dance programme including Nagpuri dance, Chhau dance and Pika dance were performed. A delegation of film producers and person related to film industry of the industry met with people from various part of the world after the cultural programme during get together.

During the festival movies such as ‘Panchait’, directed by Prem Prakash Modi; ‘Mor gaon Mor Desh’ and directed by Ashwini Kumar will be shown. These are out an out Jharjkhandi  films that have a stellar star cast from Jharkhand.

Speaking about the future prospects of the effort Akhtar said, “This will provide employment to Jharkhand artists and also the tourist places of the State will get more popularity.  In this way people of Jharkhand will also get new employment opportunities through the film industry.” A 30-member delegation went to Panjim to participate the programme, including the State Government officials, film producers and some artists. In the film festival, 212 films from different languages of more than 68 countries are being displayed.