DHAKA - The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) will for the first time organise screening and discussions on films and filmmakers from Bangladesh to mark Ekushey February (Feb 21), the day on which the movement for Bangladesh’s cultural renaissance started.

Top Bangladeshi filmmakers Tanvir Mokammel, Abu Sayeed, Tareque and Catherine Masud will travel to Pune, the headquarters of the state-run FTII, to participate in the two-day interaction Feb 21-22, The Daily Star said Wednesday.

Mokammel’s ‘Swapnobhumi’ will be screened along with ‘Chitra Nadir Parey’.

Abu Sayeed’s ‘Nirontor’, and Tareque and Catherine Masud’s two films, ‘Matir Moina’ and ‘Muktir Gaan’ will also be screened.

This is the first time that FTII is focussing on films from Bangladesh and their directors.

While Bangladeshi film directors like Mokammel, the Masud couple and Abu Sayeed are familiar in Indian festival circuits, it is not often that one finds their works being shown in tandem. This lends the event in Pune a special significance.

FTII’s then director Jagat Murari was a member of the delegation led by the late filmmaker B.R. Chopra when the first festival of Indian films was organised in Dhaka in 1974.

There was much collaboration after Bangladesh’s independence, when Indian filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak made ‘Teetas Ekti Nodir Naam’. India’s Rajen Tarafdar was engaged in co-productions in Bangladesh.

Satyajit Ray’s award-winning ‘Asani Sanket’ had Bangladeshi actor Babita playing the lead female role.

FTII was set up by the Indian government in 1960 by taking over the closed-down Prabhat Studio and among distinguished students are directors Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahni, cinematographer K.K. Mahajan (who has worked under veteran director Mrinal Sen in a number of his films), actors Rehana Sultan (who won a national award for best actress), Navin Nishcal and Anil Dhawan.