Vivek Agnihotri, Pallavi Joshi feted at Chitra Bharti film festival

Stories related to Indian culture and tradition must be made available to the Indian audience and films are the best way to tell stories to people, said Union Minister Murugan, adding, "I am happy that Chitra Bharati has been working towards making such movies."

Bhopal: Stories related to Indian culture and tradition must be made available to the Indian audience and films are the best way to tell stories to people, said Murugan, adding, "I am happy that Chitra Bharati has been working towards making such movies."

Our literature is replete with stories speaking about Indian culture and tradition. But, films are not made based on such stories. Films are a powerful medium to spread the message about our country's culture and civilization to the world said the minister. He also congratulated Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna for organizing the film festival.

Vivek Agnihotri, the director of The Kashmir Files, and actor Pallavi Joshi were also felicitated on the occasion. Film artists associated with Chitra Bharti will be given an opportunity to work with Vivek Agnihotri in his upcoming film and each actor will be given Rs 1 lakh as honorarium, said Pallavi. Noted actor Gajendra Chauhan and Abhinav Kashyap also spoke.

Union minister for state, L Murugan, gave away Rs 10 lakh awards to actors and filmmakers under different categories; on behalf of Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna. In short film and documentary sections, Kabir Shah's 'Chhote Si Baat' and Dipika Kothari's 'Bharat--Prakriti Ka Balak' were given prizes of rupees one lakh to each of them. Mukesh Kumar's 'Bruno' bagged the second prize and 'Whistling Machine' produced by Smita Bhati secured the third prize. Anand Kumar Chauhan was adjudged for Best Direction for his movie 'Whistling Machine'. Raj Arjun for the film 'Pilibhit' was declared Best Male Actor while the Best Actress Award went to Ashwini Kasar for the film 'Pauli'. Films Amay by Hari Prasad, Vikas Gautgutia's (Unknown Number), and Chudka Murmu by Jagannath Biswas also found Special Mention during the festival.

In documentary film categories, Nanaji Ka Goan by Mayank Singh and Tholu Bomlatta (Sarmaya Art Foundation) achieved second and third prizes respectively. Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri gave away awards to the actors.