NEW DELHI: The G20 Summit will not just only be about serious discussions around development and global trade, it will also witness a large number of concerts, entertainment programmes and festivals planned by the host cities.To promote the movies produced by Indian filmmakers and also recognise the work done by their counterparts of the member countries, the tourism department of Delhi government has decided to organise a film festival in the city.India will host more than 200 meetings in over 50 cities across 32 different work streams. Eight of these meetings, including the main G20 Summit, will be held in the capital. Most of these events will take place in September.A senior Delhi government official said the film festival is likely to be held in the last week of August and the first fortnight of September. “The film festival will have movies from the G20 member countries as well as Indian films made by the Delhi-based filmmakers and also the ones shot extensively in the city,” the official said.While launching the Delhi Film Policy earlier this year, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had also announced making the film festival an annual event. The government had also sent a delegation of Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation to the Cannes Film Festival to help them prepare the outline for the Delhi International Film Festival.Sources confirmed that the first Delhi International Film Festival will only be held next financial year. “We have not kept the budgetary provision for the film festival in this fiscal. The G20 Summit will be an opportune time to organise it,” said an official.Officials said the outline of the festival and the basic preparations will be done by July 2023. Apart from a mega event, which will be held at a central venue where most of the films will be screened, the government is likely to rope in some of the prominent multiplexes. “We will soon form a team to identify the movies that will be screened,” said an official.The Delhi government has also planned to organise a number of entertainment events, including concerts by internationally known Indian artistes, folk dance and song festival on the theme of G20, comic con, grub festival, Delhi Walk Festival and a drone and laser show. Some of these programmes will be spread across the year starting March 2023.“Apart from tourism, the art, culture and languages department has also been roped in to organise these events,” said the official.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/concerts-and-film-festivals-to-add-glitter-to-summit/articleshow/96434879.cms
