Children's film festival flags off in capital

New Delhi, Nov 14 (IANS) The National Children's Film Festival (NCFF), organised by the Children's Film Society of India (CFSI), was Friday inaugurated by Finance minister Arun Jaitley at Siri Fort Auditorium here.

The three-day festival aims at showing children's films which are either made or shot in India. The festival, that has been organised by CFSI every alternate year, will conclude Sunday.

Present for the event was Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, minister of state for Information and Broadcasting, along with Bollywood actress Dia Mirza, Divya Dutta, Tennis sensation Sania Mirza and ace filmmaker Shyam Benegal, among others.

The festival opened with Jaitley lighting the lamp along with Dia, Sania and festival director Strabane Kumar. It was followed by the screening of the opening movie, Seemaa Desai's "Pappu ki Pugdandi".

The central theme of this year's NCFF has been declared as 'Swachhta' and keeping this in mind, there will also be a workshop on how to make the best stuff out of waste products.

"The great thing about childhood is that it is the part of life where there is no tension or worries. And the values we learn during this time become part of our personality for life. And I hope this festival leaves an imprint on our hearts and life," Jaitley said during the opening of the event.

The festival will showcase children's films like Amitabha Singh's "Shortcut Safari", Sridhar Rangayan "Yeh Hai Chakkad Bakkad Bumbe Bo" and Bernd Neuberger's "Summer with the Ghost".