Michelin-star chef Vikas Khanna named IAAC brand ambassador,
New York: Michelin-star chef Vikas Khanna has been named brand ambassador of a leading cultural organisation which will organise the annual New York Indian Film Festival next month that showcases the celebrity chef's film 'The Last Color' and Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer 'Photograph'.
Khanna, 47, was named as brand ambassador of Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) during a press conference at the Consulate General of India here.
The IAAC will present the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), North America's longest-running and most prestigious Indian film festival from May 7 to 12. Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan has accepted to join the IAAC board.
The festival, supported by the Indian Consulate, will open with Rohena Gera directed 'Sir', starring Tillotama Shome, which was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
The festival's centerpiece is 'Photograph', directed by Ritesh Batra and starring Sanya Malhotra.
Khanna's 'The Last Color' is the closing night film of the festival and has won rave reviews at various international film festivals for its lead actress Neena Gupta, who plays a widow living a life of abstinence and isolation in the ancient Indian city of Banaras.
Khanna said it was a matter of immense pride for him to be named as the brand ambassador of IAAC and showcase his movie at the film festival based in his "adopted home" of New York City.
"The Last Color is the story of moving on, leaving traditions behind which have been followed for centuries. It's very close to my heart," he told PTI, adding that he has seen women who have been widowed and forced to live in total isolation.
Khanna said he felt it was time for a change as he saw the widows in Varanasi.
"When women get empowered, they can make the shift not just in societies but in our lives," he said, adding that he is very fortunate to have worked with Gupta.
Khanna was exuberant for getting the platform of NYIFF to showcase his film.
"Imagine doing the movie and not having a place to showcase your art. I am glad I could produce such organic art without any selfish motive," he said.
Khanna said his fil had gone to more than 20 film festivals around the world but the first confirmation for his movie came from NYIFF.
"The story is a piece of my heart, it may be technically weak, financially bankrupt but it is emotionally overwhelming," he said, adding that India's regional stories are "more powerful" and tell about the amazing resilience of its people.
The festival will showcase 30 feature-length films, including three documentaries, as well as bring to the New York audience 30 shorts, 19 regional films, including Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Tamil, Malyalam cinema, Festival Director Aseem Chhabra said.
"There will be a strong representation of regional cinema from India, including a Ladakhi-Kashmiri children's film," Chhabra said.
Consul General of India in New York Sandeep Chakravorty said the strong regional content of the film festival was very important.
"This is what India is all about. Unfortunately, the image abroad is Bollywood all the time but Indian cinema is more than Bollywood. It is regional films, documentary films, film by very sensitive and intelligent people," Chakravorty said.
He stressed that India lived in its regions and is an amalgamation of cultures.
"We will be mistaken if we think Indian cinema is only Bollywood, it's not. Some of the finest work in Indian cinema is happening outside of Bollywood, it's important to bring that forward," Chakravorty said.
IAAC Vice Chairman Rakesh Kaul said the arts organisation wanted the festival to bring diversity of India to the New York audience, who will get to see the magnificence of India through the festival's line-up.
Kaul said they have ensured that the content of the films selected for the festival is "bold stories that courageous directors stake themselves on".
"You will see how bold these stories are, what courage the directors display because these stories will move you in a manner like nothing that you have experienced in the multiplexes you go to see Bollywood or Hollywood fare," Kaul said.
Through the festival, the audience will see that the profound strength of India is its imagination, he said.
The film festival, now in its 19th year, has been a popular annual fixture on the New York arts calendar, thanks to the pioneering work done by Aroon Shivdasani, who was the Executive and Artistic Director of Indo-American Arts Council and retired last year after leading the organisation for two decades.
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Search ops intensified in J-K's Kathua to track down infiltrating terrorists; 6 held for questioning
Jammu (PTI): Security forces have intensified search operations using aerial surveillance and sniffer dogs following a night-long cordon after fresh reports of suspected movement of three individuals, believed to be terrorists, who escaped a recent encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, officials said.
Two terrorists and four policemen were killed while three others, including a deputy superintendent of police, were injured during a gunfight in a remote forested area in the Sanyal belt of the district on Thursday.
Security forces, which have picked up six persons for questioning, have also launched a search operation in Samba sector near the international border to sanitise the area, while the entire border belt has been put on alert, officials said.
On Sunday night, three suspected terrorists entered a house in Rui village, several kilometres from the encounter site, and took away food from her kitchen, they said.
"Multi-tier combing operations have been intensified following fresh movement of terrorists. After a night-long cordon, a search operation was launched this morning in the Ghati-Juthana forest area," an officer said.
Aided by aerial surveillance and sniffer dogs, the army, police, NSG, CRPF and BSF are engaged in a multi-tier operation to track down the terrorists in the forest belts of Rui, Juthana, Ghati and Sanyal in the Rajbagh region, and parts of Billawar, the officials said.
The joint operation teams are also focusing on the overground and underground networks of the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad in areas along the International Border (IB), they said.
On Sunday night, three suspicious persons dressed in black robes entered the house of Shanker in Rui village and asked for water from a elderly woman.
"I was alone at home when they asked me for water. I went into another room out of fear after giving them water," the elderly woman told reporters.
"Before leaving, they forcibly entered the kitchen and took away rotis and sabzi," she added.
The woman said they even offered her money -- two Rs 500 notes -- before leaving, which she refused.
The incident prompted the security forces to put the area under night cordon.
It is difficult for terrorists to survive in the absence of a network of overground workers (OGWs), who provide them with food, shelter and escape routes, the officials said.
The forces have picked up six persons, including some women of a family, for questioning as it is alleged that they provided food, shelter and guidance to the terrorists operating in the region, the officials said.
The women belong to the family of Mohammad Latief, an OGW who is in jail under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for helping terrorists in Malhar during an attack on an army truck last year, in which six soldiers lost their lives.
It is believed that Abu Tala, one of the slain terrorists, stayed at Latief's house.
The security forces have questioned over two dozen persons about terrorist movements in the area.
Police are also tracking a group of terrorists after intercepting them on March 23 within a 'dhok', a local term for an enclosure in a nursery, in Sanyal village near the International Border with Pakistan.
Tracking them led to an encounter in Sanyal village, which resulted in the killing of two terrorists and four policemen last Thursday.
The bodies of three other policemen -- Balwinder Singh Chib, Jaswant Singh and Tariq Ahmed -- were found on Friday evening.
The bodies of two Pakistani terrorists, believed to be affiliated to the Jaish-e-Mohammad, were also recovered along with war-like stores.
The body of head constable Jagbir Singh was retrieved from the Ghati-Juthana forest on Saturday.
The People's Anti-Fascist Front, a shadow outfit of Jaish-e-Mohammed, claimed involvement in the encounter.
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