India and Bangladesh foster cultural diplomacy through Agartala film festival

India Gazette (ANI) Sunday 5th February, 2012

India and Bangladesh are holding a special three-day film festival titled-'Bangladesh War of Liberation in Celluloid' here to promote cultural diplomacy bilaterally.

The Directorate of Film Festival (DFF) of both countries has organized the event.

Bangladesh's Deputy High Commissioner to India, Mahbub Hassan Saleh said: "This is a part of our pursuance of cultural diplomacy and people to people contact is an aspect of that. So through these films, as I said, we would like to project the historic war of liberation of Bangladesh to the new generation of Bangladesh and the world, (to enlighten) the kind of sacrifices our forefathers have made during our historic war of liberation."

India helped Bangladesh secede from Pakistan in a bloody 1971 war, but relations were frequently fractious after that.

Reacting to a question Saleh added that Dhaka's youth is well aware about New Delhi's role in their liberation movement.

"The young generation of Bangladesh is aware of the historic war of liberation and they are very aware of the role played by India and our friends all over the world, in our birth in 1971," added Saleh.

The festival that will open on February 10 will feature a total six films of renowned directors and producers of Bangladesh. (ANI)