Panaji, Amid conflicts raging in parts of the globe, veteran filmmaker Shekhar Kapur on Wednesday emphasised that fights between countries can be stopped if they start telling their stories to each other. Kapur, director of the 55th edition of the International Film Festival of India , which opened in Goa, maintained the country’s movie industry is the greatest content makers, and also its greatest consumers, in the world. In his brief interaction during inauguration of the IFFI, the 78-year-old filmmaker opined that in this polarised world, within nations, within communities, “the only way we talk to each other is by telling each other our stories”. “Stories is how we relate, stories is how we perceive each other and that’s what has to go on,” he said during the formal function held at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium at Bambolim near Panaji. Kapur, known for Hindi movies like ‘Masoom’, ‘Mr India’ and ‘Bandit Queen’, said the Indian film industry is the greatest content makers in the world and added “we are the greatest content consumers in the world”. “So, for this festival, I begged everybody to celebrate, not just filmmakers but audiences. Let’s celebrate the audiences,” he noted. “Let’s tell our stories. Stop all this, the fights everywhere, the missiles, the only way it can stop is when each one of us get together and tell our stories and that is the most important job,” asserted Kapur. The ace director, who successfully branched out to Hollywood with the Oscar-nominated period drama “Elizabeth”, “The Four Feathers” and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, said film festivals are not just about winning awards. “The job should be to have the best festival in the world, not to win awards, but to come together and tell our stories so that we understand each other,” the celebrated filmmaker noted. The IFFI’s inaugural function was compered by actors Bhumi Pednekar and Abhishekh Banerjee. The function paid rich tributes to Indian cinema legends such as Raj Kapoor, Mohammed Rafi, Tapan Sinha and Akkineni Nageswara Rao with special audio-visual performances in the opening ceremony by veteran actor Boman Irani. Representatives from families of all the four icons were recognised on the stage in the presence of Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, IFFI director Kapur and Sanjay Jaju, secretary, Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Responding to the tribute paid to Akkineni Nageswara Rao, his son and actor Nagarjuna Akkineni said it was difficult for him to describe in one word what life-lessons were taught by his late father. “As I grew up, he taught me life, cinema and how to live,” he emphasised. Nagarjuna said he learnt lessons of life from cinema and acting. The 55th edition of IFFI, which began on November 20, will conclude on November 28.
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