Devdas film festival from Sep 16

HYDERABAD: Sharat Chandra Chatterjee’s story of an alcoholic lover will once again cast its spell on movie lovers when six feature films based on his Devdas and shot in different eras will be screened during the six-day Devdas film festival at Hari Hara Kala Bhavan, Secunderabad from Sept. 16 at 6 pm daily.
The festival includes all the most illustrative films in the genre: From the Vedantam Raghavaiah-directed Devadasu in Telugu in which Akkineni Nageswara Rao played the role of the jilted lover to the latest Rs 50 crore extravaganza by Sanjay Leela Bhansali starring Shah Rukh Khan.
The following films will be screened: Devadasu (Telugu, Sept. 16), Bimal Roy’s Devdas (Hindi, Sept. 17), P C Barua’s Devdas (Hindi, Sept. 18), Vijayanirmala’s Devadasu (Telugu, Sept. 19), Shakti Samanta’s Devdas (Bengali, Sept. 20) and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas (Hindi, Sept. 21).
Speaking to reporters, Hyderabad Film Club secretary S S Prakash Reddy said entry to the shows will be on a first-come-first-served basis.
The festival will give film goes an opportunity to judge which Devdas was the best and who best essayed the role of the tragic lover. Aprajita Roy Sinha, daughter of the legendary Bimal Roy, said: “Though I have not seen Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film but I have been advised by many not to see as it may be a disappointment.’’
Aprajita Roy said she does not really understand why people were comparing her father’s Devdas with the latest one as both the movies were made in different time periods.