Indian films will compete for top honours at the 43rd Annual WorldFest

Three Indian films, San Banerje`s `Bodhisattva`, Saeed Mirza`s `Ek Tho Chance` and Nikhil Bhat`s `Saluun`, will compete for top honours at the 43rd Annual WorldFest here. The films have been nominated to receive the prestigious Remi awards at the festival which begins on April 9.

Billed as the oldest independent film and video festival in the world, the annual WorldFest dates back to 1961 and has been entertaining film fans, students and industry experts for decades. Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) production `Ek Tho Chance` starring Purab Kohli, Amrita Arora and Rajat Kapoor is a tale of the millions who get off the train at Mumbai`s VT station every second of the day hoping to latch on to the magic of the city.

"Earlier in 2004, our movie `Jhankaar Beats` won the Remi award. Later in 2007, `Pyaar Ke Side Effects`, a romantic comedy starring Mallika Sherawat and Rahul Bose won the Silver Remi Award for `Best Comedy Feature`," Ishita Nandy, Vice President of PNC told reporters.

Nikhil Bhat`s `Saluun`, revolves around the life of Asok, a small-town simpleton, who gets entangled in the web of corrupt government machinery when his road side salon is burned down by the local municipality. San Banarje`s `Bodhisattva` is the story of Maya (Trisha Ray) and her father, Bodhisattva (Soumitra Chatterjee) and the evolution of their relationship.

"Maya suffers from Electra complex and compares every man with her father and is even willing to commit a crime at his bidding," says Banarje, whose English film `Money` was screened at the 2007 Cannes film festival. "Getting this far was beyond our imagination as we even missed the deadline.

And to be in competition with bigwigs with such a small film only proves that God has stamped our hard work," Trisha Ray, the lead female actress in the movie told reporters.

"The fact that we are nominated alongside movies like `The Joneses` starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny with our little Bengali film with no song, no dance, no regular feel of a typical Indian films or known faces, cant beat that," she said. Indian film `Lahore` had won the Special Jury Award in the Action/Adventure category at the festival last year.

`Mudhal Mudhal Varai` won Remi Bronze in Foreign Feature category, and `Zor Lagaa Ke Haiya`, won the Remi silver Award for family features.