Bangalore January 30 – Dreaming Lhasa will be the first Tibetan film to be screened in a commercial cinema hall in India, reports Voice of Tibet radio service. The film that won international appreciation at film festivals in Spain, Canada and India is the first full length Tibetan feature film to be made with standard equipments and techniques. The film was made by Tenzin Sonam and Ritu Sarin, who are partners in reel life as well as real life.
Shot in the locales of Dharamshala, Dehradun, Jaipur and Delhi the film received mixed response from the Tibetan audience. The film was screened exclusively for about 500 invited guests at the India Habitat Centre yesterday. Also present among the guests were Kasur Jetsun Pema, Kalon Lobsang Nyandak and Kasur Tempa Tsering, the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the Indian capital.
According to Tenzin Sonam, the film will be screened at the Noida PVR, India’s largest chain of cinema halls, from February 3 for a week.
However, there are speculations that the film may face a last minute obstacle from being screened at PVR as it contains scenes that require to be censored under the norms of the Indian Board of Film Certification. The male protagonist in the film is shown smoking in many scenes which the Indian ministry of information and broadcasting had banned a few years back.
Indian superstar Amitabh Bachchan had to face furious agitation from an NGO which protested against Bachchan smoking a cigar in the promotional hoarding of his latest film Family in Goa. Bachchan later apologized for his action.
Critics also say that theTibetan film also contains some anti China elements which the ever pressure-vulnerable India is most likely to oppose and eventually stop the screening of Dreaming Lhasa in an Indian theatre.
