Documentaries capturing the stories of icons, narrating the tales of some of vanishing textile traditions and the legendary battle of Bhima-Koregaon in Maharashtra, will be up for online view this whole month as part of a pan-India heritage festival.
The India Heritage Walk Festival began yesterday with events in World Heritage City Ahmedabad, Delhi's Mehrauli Archaeological Park and a nature walk in Hyderabad.
Twenty-five films will be screened online, exploring the remarkable facet of the subcontinent's heritage in the form of people, arts, traditions and architecture, the orgnaisers today said.
A 1961 documentary on Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, directed by legendary Satyajit Ray, and produced by the Films Division, was the first to be screened on the YouTube page of Sahapedia.
Sahapedia, an open online resource on the arts, cultures and heritage of India, has joined hands with the 'YES Culture' of YES Bank for this multi-faceted month-long festival.
The festival spans 20 cities, including Agra, Bengaluru, Varanasi, Chennai, Kolkata, Srinagar and Itanagar.
Titles that will be screened include Weavers of Maheswar (2016) by Keya Vaswani and Nidhi Kamath, which tells the story of people who have worked hard to revive a vanishing handloom craft; and The Sarangi - Story of a Museum (2015) by Manoj Bhandare and Raju Hittalamani, a journey through Kathmandu's museum of music and musical instruments from Nepal.
A 2017 documentary on the Battle of Bhima-Koregaon by Somnath Waghamare, which celebrates the valour of the forgotten Mahar soldiers who defeated the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy, is slated for screening later today.
The Battle of Koregaon was fought on 1 January, 1818 between the British East India Company and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy.
Other films lined up as part of the festival are about the legendary Dhrupad maestros of the Dagar family, Dagarvaani (1993), and lesser-known gems like The Shillong Chamber Choir (2008); Mystique of Murshidabad (2014); Little Magazines of Voices (2014) and Hyderabadi Tryst with Ittar (2017).
The screened films will be available for online viewing throughout the month, the orgnaisers said.
Preeti Sinha, Glocal Convener, YES Global Institute, said, as "we move towards a Digital India", technology needs to be leveraged for understanding its vast and rich cultural heritage.
"Digital audio guides for heritage walks, videos and info-graphics for social media platforms and high quality images of arts and monuments on app-based platforms are changing the way we consume and absorb India's heritage," she said.
"It is a free festival. We hope our citizens use this opportunity to reconnect with their past and its rich history to build a new digital future," Sinha said.
Besides walks, there will be 'baithaks' (sittings) for history enthusiasts and 'instameets' for Instagram users, a Sahapedia representative said.
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