The 2nd Biennial edition of CineTalkies – CineTalkies 2024, December 13-15, 2024, was organised by Sanskar Bharti in Mumbai at National Stock Exchange Campus, Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai. The programme began with the inaugural ceremony on the evening of December 13 in the august presence of legendary actor, producer, writer and director of Marathi cinema Sachin Pilgaonkar, who was chief guest, and MD and CEO of National Stock Exchange, Ashish Chauhan. Also present at the ceremony were patrons of Cine Talkies 2024, actor-cum-producer of Bharatiya cinema, Smt Khushbu Sundar and Bharatiya film industry’s senior most critic, journalist and author Smt Bharati Pradhan. Throwing light on the conclave’s theme “Bharatiya Cinema: From Woods to Roots” during the opening ceremony, Shri Abhijit Gokhale, the Organising Secretary of Sanskar Bharti, mentioned in his remarks that our filmmakers need to make sure that their roots are strong enough so that they can take a dip into them and come out with refreshing ideas that enriches their content.
Rooting for Bharatiya Film Industry
While speaking on the success of films like Kantara, Munjya, Stree and others, Gokhale said that our sanskriti offers a lot of fresh stories and perspectives for filmmakers. He said that filmmaking is a creative field, and there is an urge to go against the system. However, through the medium of films, one can also showcase the success of our system and build the faith of the audience along with entertaining them. He also stressed the need that it was time for the industry to come out of the colonial mindset of regional woods and create soft power of a single Bharatiya film industry.
Modern Take to Marathi Heritage
In his remarks, Sachin Pilgaonkar expressed his happiness at the Marathi bhasha being granted the status of classical language. He also said that Maharashtra’s culture in itself had a lot to offer filmmakers and there should be fresh films made on the history and culture with a modern take. He also stressed that such programmes should be organised more frequently.
The third discussion was on the subject of “Local is Global: Is going back the way forward”. This panel show the participation of renowned filmmaker and Padma Shri recipient Nila Madhab Panda, who made history with the film I am Kalam, noted actor of Marathi cinema, Swapnil Joshi and Niren Bhatt, acclaimed lyricist and writer of superhit films like Munjya, Stree, Stree 2, Bhediya etc…The panel was moderated by acclaimed journalist and film critic Vinod Anupam. The common opinion of the panel was that Bharatiya Sanskriti has a lot of stories waiting to be told. Swapnilji stressed the need to wear our culture on our sleeve and be unapologetic about it.
The day concluded with the closing ceremony which was presided over by Sudheer Joglekar, President of Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Mumbai. Ramesh Taurani, co-founder of Tips Industries, graced the occasion as the chief guest. Also present at the event were Vipul Amrutlal Shah, acclaimed Producer, Director and patron of Cine Talkies 2024 and Pramod Bapat, Trustee of Bharatiya Chitra Sadhana. Sunil Barve, noted actor, writer, director and producer in Marathi language, who was also convenor of Cine Talkies 2024, opened the ceremony by thanking the participants, patrons and guests who had graced the occasion and who had contributed in making the three-day event a grand success. He also expressed hope that the organising team would look into the demand of the audience to organise the event as an annual event, instead of biennial.
