Sushant's 'Chhichhore' part of IFFI's Indian Panorama lineup

MUMBAI: Twenty-three feature films and 20 non-feature films will be screened as part of the Indian Panorama section at the 51st International Film Festival of India (IFFI), to be held from January 16 to 24. This was announced by Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday.

"Happy to announce the selection of 23 feature and 20 non-feature films in Indian Panorama of 51st IFFI. @MIB_India" Javadekar wrote on Twitter.

Bollywood representation in the list of feature films includes the Sushant Singh Rajput-starrer "Chhichhore" directed by Nitesh Tiwari, and Tushar Hiranandani's Taapsee Pannu-Bhumi Pednekar starrer "Saand Ki Aankh".

The Indian Panorama this time will also screen the Assamese film "Bridge" directed by Kripal Kalita, Subhrajit Mitra's Bengali film "Avijatrik" and Siddharth Tripathy's Chattisgarhi film "A Dog And His Man".

The list of 23 feature films also includes Vetri Maaran's Tamil film "Asuran", Nila Madhab Panda's Oriya language film "Kalira Atita", Govind Nihalani's English language animation film "Up, Up & Up", Pradeep Kalipurayath's Malayalm film "Safe", Prithvi Konanur's Kannada film "Pinki Elli?", Anwar Rasheed Malayalam film "Trance" and Shashank Udapurkar's Marathi film "Prawaas".

The jury for the feature film list, headed by filmmaker John Mathew Matthan, made the final selection from a pool of 183 Indian films.

The Sushant-starrer "Chhichhore" has been included as part of three mainstream films, along with "Asuran" and Musthafa's Malayalam film, "Kappela".

The mainstream films were selected by an internal committee of Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) based on the recommendations of Film Federation of India (FFI) and Producer's Guild.

The list of 20 non-feature films have been selected from a pool of 143 entries. The seven-member non-feature jury was headed by Manipuri filmmaker Haobam Paban Kumar.

The opening non-feature film of Indian Panorama is "Paanchika" directed by Ankit Kothari.

The list also includes: "100 Years Of Chrysotom: A Biographical Film", "Ahimsa-Gandhi: The Power Of The Powerless", "Catdog", "Drama Queens", "Green Blackberries", "Highways Of Life", "Holy Rights", "In Our World", "Investing Life" and "Jaadoo".

The nine-day gala, which was previously scheduled to take place in Goa from November 20 to 28, was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will now be held from January 16 to January 24.