A banner announcing the film festival in Jamshedpur. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, April 19: Come May, the steel city will, for the first time, host a five-day Santhali Film Festival in a mark of respect to the indigenous people and their culture.

The All India Santhali Film Association has taken the initiative to showcase reel masterpieces produced in Jharkhand, Bengal and Orissa. Noted litterateur and tribal crusader Mahasweta Devi has consented to inaugurate the festival on May 1. Tata Steel managing director H.M. Nerurkar is expected to the grace the occasion while the concluding ceremony will be attended by none other than chief minister Shibu Soren.

“Santhali films are being made for two decades now, but directors, actors or technicians never got the recognition they deserve. There is a myth about tribals that most of them are Maoists. This is so not true. The film festival will help change such mindset,” said Ramesh Hansda, the chief convener of the festival.

The festival will open at Tata Auditorium and be followed by screenings at TMDC Auditorium and Centre for Excellence. As many as 13 Santhali films and three Nagpuri films will be screened at the festival that will target audience from East and West Singhbhum, Seraikela-Kharsawan and Santhal Pargana.

This is not all. The first Santhali film fest will also introduce the Jharkhand Cine Award having a total prize money of Rs 1 lakh, which will be divided into four categories of Rs 25,000 each.

The jury will comprise litterateur Digambar Hansda, tribal culture specialist C.R. Majhi, theatre personality Shivlal Sagar and filmmakers Biyot Projna Tripathy and Prabal Mahto.