"Taare Zameen Par" fame actor Darsheel Safary and child comedian Saloni Daini will host the 18th edition of the International Children's Film Festival (ICFF), starting Nov 14 in the Andhra Pradesh capital. Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor will inaugurate the fest.
"We decided to have children as hosts for the festival to highlight that they don't have boundaries today. If they can act in films at such a young age, they can host a festival too. These children are stars among children and, therefore, it made sense to have them host the event," Shravan Kumar, festival director and CEO, Children's Film Society, India (CFSI), told IANS.
While Ranbir will be present during the opening ceremony, Salman Khan will lend his support through an audio-visual presentation.
"In the recent past, Salman and Ranbir were associated with the children's film 'Chillar Party', which was a hit among younger audiences. So we decided to have these actors associated with our festival to create awareness," he added.
"Chillar Party" was screened at an earlier festival.
This year, 200 films from 48 countries will be screened at ICFF, which will be staged in Hyderabad for the ninth time since its inception.
Some of the films to be screened at the fest are Japanese drama "7 Days of Himmawari and her Puppies", Iran's "Good Fellows" and Denmark's "The Great Bird Chase".
Indian films such as "Fandry", "The Fire Flies" and "Wild Berries" will also be screened across 13 theatres in Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
Four competition sections namely International Competition, International Competition Animation, Competition Shorts and Competition Little Director have been included in the festival.
Bollywood filmmaker Amol Gupte, chairman CFSI, will interact with the audience at the fest.
