Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor who was present at the inauguration of the 7th Jagran Film Festival said that film festivals are the purest form of education for the emerging filmmakers. “Jagran Film Festival is going on for 7 years. I feel that this is an advantage for the film Industry. Suppose there is a budding filmmaker who wants to see different kind of movies, which are not shown in regular cinema halls. He can see films following a masterclass or a discussion. So with all these, I think film festivals are the purest form of education for budding filmmakers,” he said at the opening ceremony. “Film festivals are not corrupted by commercialisation in many ways. At festivals each film is welcome. They are not about the big or small films but more about the content,” he added.

The 7th edition of Jagran Film Festival sets the stage for a week-long extravaganza and will open with the showcase of highly acclaimed Algerian movie “Road To Istanbul”.

Speaking about the film, the “Ki and Ka” actor said, “‘Road to Istanbul’ is such a relevant film like ‘Pink’ is relevant in today’s India. ‘Road to Istanbul’ is related globally as most of the parents don’t know where they went wrong with their children. It’s so important as cinema shows you what reality is. We look at the cinema for inspiration but many times cinema takes inspiration from life.”

“Road to Istanbul”, a 92-minute-long movie, revolves around young Europeans converting to Islam and taking up the Jihadi cause. During the film festival, in the ‘Indian Showcase’ popular films like “Airlift”, “Neerja”, “Sarbjit”, “Talvar”, “Natsamrat”, “Aligarh”, “Sairat” and “Mithila Makhaan” will be shown.