Hollywood, Arabic and Bollywood cinema shine at Red Sea International Film Festival

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Transcript

00:00Good evening, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Dark News. I'm the entertainment editor

00:14and I'm here at the opening ceremony of the Red Sea International Film Festival. It's

00:18the third edition and we're expecting a galaxy of Bollywood and Bollywood stars and of course

00:23luminaries from the Arabic cinema. The opening night film is Hojan, which is a Saudi Arabian

00:29feature and it's a supernatural fantasy movie which I'm really looking forward to. And this

00:35year they have a galaxy of stars attending the festival including Halle Berry, Dial Kruger,

00:41Ren-B Sink, Katrina Kaif and the whole works. So it'll be very interesting to see what's

00:46going to happen at the opening ceremony. I'm really looking forward to the night and we'll

00:50get you on the action.

00:51You know, Saudi Arabia has a really unique opportunity with the untapped history and

01:00then the spectacular leap into the future and unmined stories and things. So I'm excited

01:08as an artist to be here for this renaissance.

01:13It's really interesting. It's always wonderful to go to new and emerging countries. But when

01:19you come to something like this and you see the spectacular that is Saudi Arabia and you

01:25see how much they're supporting women in film, it's just so exciting. It's so exciting to

01:33see that two of the six female directed films that have been acknowledged in Cannes are

01:38from here. You really can see how much women in film are being supported here in Saudi

01:44Arabia.

01:45It's a very big market for Hindi movies, a very significant market. And we have such

01:50a strong diaspora that resides here. And because they live away from home, they're even more

01:57fond of Hindi movies than many people back home as well. So it is absolutely significant

02:04in the scheme of Indian movies, not just Hindi movies.

02:08Well, I think we're living in a world where increasingly, sometimes politics and other

02:14solutions fail us. But what we've got to do is make sure that the voice of storytellers

02:20are heard. And if ever there was a time to double down on making sure that films get

02:25out there and new emerging directors are heard, it's now.

02:31It's really a thrill. I'm really excited to go home and tell this story. When I saw that

02:37there were 38 female filmmakers represented in this festival, I wanted to be a part of

02:43that. I wanted to see what it felt like and I wanted to meet the filmmakers.

02:46It just feels like every time I come back to this region, it feels like home. I spent

02:50the first part of my career right after Slumdog Millionaire, albeit I wouldn't do it today,

02:57playing a lot of Arab roles. And it's a different time now and I'm a lot more conscious of leaving

03:04that to the actors and actresses from this region. But I felt very honoured that I could

03:10embody all these characters. And so to come back, it just feels like I'm coming back home.

03:15I know, I love it. I love it. This is my second time here. I was last year. And I'm so excited

03:22to be part of the jury in such an amazing team. Everyone's involved. And I'm so happy

03:32that the selection of the movie is so great. I was doing my homework. I saw all the trailers

03:39and everything to be prepared. And I said, wow, it's amazing. So I'm so glad that this

03:46festival is growing up so fast.

03:49You know, of all the things that come with making films and promoting them, to just actually

03:56get to tell the story is what I love and what I do best, I think. And I think that as I

04:02grow older and there's new generations coming, you want to inspire, go to places and inspire

04:08new worlds to hopefully want to tell their story.

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