Cinephiles, Artists Laud Sanjay Mishra's Rakkhosh; India's First POV Film

After a successful screening at the Pune International Film Festival, awards at the Rajasthan International Film Festival it was a houseful show at the Orange City International Film Festival. To top it all, top artists from India offered their own POVs on India’s first POV film Rakkhosh.

Fans went berserk at Nagpur occupying all seats at the show in the Orange City. Filmmakers and the actors came in for heavy praise and felicitation.

“We are overwhelmed by the response,” exults Srivinay Salian, the writer director of the film.

“We did not think that fans would also enjoy a film of this genre. But cinema is changing and content is king,” says producer Santosh Deshpande.

“The work of actors Sanjay Mishra, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Priyanka Bose and other actors came in for so much praise from the fans. While the gentry was praising the filmmaking efforts, the fans went gaga over the performances as well,” says Prashen Kyawal, the creative producer of Rakkhosh.

What however was humbling was the fact that artists like Tirtha Banerjee, Upendra Desai and Aditya Nibhanapudi presented their own version of the film with their point of view through art works. “All we can say that everyone has a point of view on our cinema and this is a historic moment for us,” chirps Salian.

And finally, the filmmakers, inspired by the artists, have announced a contest for fans and artists and requested them to make their own POV of the film Rakkhosh.

A Blow by Blow account:

# Nagpur's Orange City International Film Festival (OCIFF) 2019 screened to overflowing audience. The film crew had to vacate the seats for public and still some public returned as the auditorium was houseful and over-seated!

# RAKKHOSH film was introduced to the audience by Festival Director Dr. Chandrashekhar Meshram followed by felicitation of Producer Santosh Deshpande and Writer-Director Srivinay Salian.

# Audience was hooked to the seats due to the intriguing "Whodunnit?" plot of the film and gave standing ovation to the film after completion.

# Dr. Vinay Indurkar, Dean of a fine arts college felicitated the team post screening. Inox theatre management too felicitated the Writer-Director post the screening.

      # Salian was also invited as a panelist to participate in a discussion with  reputed cinema guru Samar Nakhate and acclaimed Film Director Dr. Jabbar Patel and was felicitated for the same.

     # To top it all, actor and Associate Director Ravikant Soitkar was also felicitated by the festival for his outstanding performance in RAKKHOSH.

# Such a wonderful day was preceded by coverage in international media from South East Asia and Poland to be followed by a very academic and positive review of RAKKHOSH in an US print publication. Few more critics who attended the festival screening too gave thumbs up for it.

# Festival accolades, National and International media attention with appreciation from film critics was topped up by the ultimate gratification of positive public response. They said they were hooked till the end trying to figure out what's next and appreciate the awareness the film brings about mental illness. They applauded the unique treatment of POV technique and said they are proud that such films are being made in India.

#  Soon artists like Tirtha Banerjee, Upendra Desai and Aditya Nibhanapudi who were following the buzz about RAKKHOSH got intrigued by the concept and sent us their POV on "What is RAKKHOSH?" in painting and sketches.