Game, set, action!

Ritesh Sinha (left) with Sarkar
cinematographer Amit Roy (centre)

A one-of-a-kind festival will soon bring two of the country's favourite pastimes "" movies and sports "" together

One would think Ritesh Sinha, director, Ten Films, has quite enough on his plate already. Apart from continuing its regular work "" that of promoting short films made by Indian directors in various film festivals overseas "" Ten Films is now making its first feature-length movie, based on Chetan Bhagat's bestselling novel Five Point Someone "" What Not to do at IIT. Sinha is directing the film himself and is very keen to do it justice.

"The book has been so widely read, we have a lot of expectations to live up to," he muses over a salad buffet at The Imperial, Delhi.

And yet, Sinha's priorities these days reside elsewhere. What he can't stop talking about is a film festival his company is helping to organise in Mumbai in March next year: the "Sports, Movies & TV" festival by the Italy-based Federation Internationale Cinema Television Sportifs (FICTS).

"India is ready for a festival like this one, which combines two of the country's biggest passions "" movies and sports," he exults.

Those are passions all right, but don't film, television and sports make for an odd menage a trois? Sinha explains the concept behind the puzzling name: "The SM&T festival will bring together feature films, television series and documentaries that have some connection with the sporting world," he says.

"The connection doesn't have to be a very strong one "" they needn't be out-and-out sporting movies "" but it should be significant enough to showcase the sport in some way."

Television advertisements will be screened too (Sinha points to the recent Pepsi commercial with David Beckham and other footballers as an example) and there will also be a "Sports and Society" category with human-interest stories "" like that of a Brazilian village making contributions to fund the training of a local football team "" that he believes will be of special interest to Indian audiences.

"Awards will be presented in each category," says Sinha, "and the winning entries will make it to the grand finale of the SM&T festival in Milan, in October."

The festival was started by FICTS 24 years ago as the only one of its kind in the world; since then, the organisation, which has the patronage of the International Olympic Committee, has added 90 member countries to its fold.

Seven of these countries "" including, now, India "" have their own festivals which comprise an "international challenge" that provides the build-up to the finale in Milan in October. And to prove the point that the festival will encourage and spotlight the work of Indian artistes, Amit Roy, cinematographer of Ram Gopal Verma's Sarkar, was felicitated at a function recently.

"The Government of Milan asked Ten Films to nominate an Indian film personality and we suggested his name," says Sinha.

Apart from the screenings "" around 250 in all, over a four-day period "" various educational events, seminars and lectures are planned. "We will have a consolidated ambience in keeping with the theme," says Sinha, "even the food court will have a sports theme!" Many details "" the venue of the fest, for instance "" have yet to be planned out but Sinha is confident it will attract a large audience, as well as a number of sports and film personalities, from both within India and overseas.

"Sports is a sunshine industry in India now," he says, "and with other sports besides cricket opening up and producing their own stars, like Narain Karthikeyan and Sania Mirza, we believe this is the best possible time for an event like this."