'Antaheen' only Indian entry at Shanghai film fest

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) National Award winning Bengali film "Antaheen", about love and loneliness, has been selected in competition for the upcoming 13th Shanghai International Film Festival, starting June 12.

"'Antaheen' has been selected for Shanghai Film Festival in China. It's a competition entry there," Anurag Misra, director (administration) of the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), told IANS.

Directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, it is about Abhik Chowdhury (Rahul Bose), an IPS officer who is honest and upright, but laidback. Having lost faith in the real relationships that he sees around him, Abhik seeks solace in the virtual world.

While navigating through this virtual world, he develops an online relationship with a young and dynamic TV journalist Brinda (Radhika Apte). The film also stars Mita Vashisth, Aparna Sen, Kalyan Roy and Sharmila Tagore.

According to a source in DFF, seven films were sent to the festival out of which only "Antaheen" was chosen.

"We sent seven films but they selected only one... the print for the same ('Antaheen') has already been sent to China," said the source.

The films sent for selection were "Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!", "Keshu", "The White Elephant", "Pasanga" (Tamil), "Achchamundu Achchamundu" (Tamil) and Nandita Das' multiple-award winning directorial debut "Firaaq".

The nine-day festival will conclude June 20. It will also feature a retrospective of films by noted Hollywood director Woody Allen.

Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo known for films like "Mission: Impossible II" and "Face Off" will head the jury at the gala event this year.

Woo takes over from British director Danny Boyle who headed the jury last year.

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Antaheen