A film fest to unite Sandalwood and Kollywood

The Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy is organizing a film festival that will showcase critically- and commercially-acclaimed films from the past two years in Chennai. Chairman of the academy, veteran filmmaker SV Rajendra Singh Babu, has said that this is to showcase the best films from the state in the hope of increasing the market of Kannada films in Tamil Nadu.
'Tamil Nadu is important for the Kannada film industry, since the two states share a strong cultural bond. Back in the 50s, there were nearly 60-70 centres that screened our films. This has decreased in a big way over the decades. Now that no actual reels and prints are involved and everything is digital, we need to showcase our films to them to let them know that we have no dearth of good films releasing here,' he says.
He adds that there is a turnover of 100s of crores from Karnataka when it comes to Tamil films every year, so this bond can be mutual. 'We want to encourage joint productions and this festival is a seed towards this,' says Rajendra Singh.
The films being showcased include Karvva, Shivalinga, U-Turn, Marikondavaru, Mr & Mrs Ramachari, First Rank Raju and RangiTaranga.