Films from Bengal will have a strong presence at the Osian?s-Cinefan, the 8th Festival of Asian Cinema, to be held in Delhi from July 14-23.

At least five Bengali films and one crossover movie are travelling to the 10-day celluloid spread that will host the best of Asian films made in recent times.

Pan Nalin?s Valley of Flowers, a co-production involving India, France, Japan and Germany, will open the festival at Siri Fort auditorium complex, the scene of action with as many as 10 sections of screenings.

The Asian Competition section features Rituparno Ghosh?s black-and-white Dosar, alongside Iranian film-maker Tehmina Milani?s Ceasefire and films from the Philippines, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia.

Suman Mukhopadhyay?s Herbert, Subrata Sen?s Bibar, Ashoke Viswanathan?s Andhakarer Shabdo and Sudeshna Roy-Abhijit Guha?s Teen Yaari Katha will be part of the Indian Competition segment. The four will face a fight from Onir?s Bas Ek Pal and Santosh Sivan?s Ananadbhadram, among others.

The two Bengali films in Indian Osean, a non-competitive section, are Anjan Dutt?s The Bong Connection (picture right) and Anjan Das?s Faltu. Giving them company are Homi Adajania?s Being Cyrus and Rajat Kapoor?s Mixed Doubles.

The three special screenings at the festival include Goutam Ghose?s Yatra and Naseeruddin Shah?s directorial debut Yun Hota To Kya Hota.

The organisers have painstakingly put together a separate segment on New Theatres to mark its 75 years in the Bengali film industry. The four films made under the New Theatres banner include Pramathesh Barua?s Mukti (1937), Debaki Bose?s Vidyapati (1938), Phani Mazumdar?s Street Singer (1938) and Nitin Bose?s Kashinath (1943).

Ritwik Ghatak is the theme of the Osian Conference, which will be followed by a retrospective of his works to mark the film-maker?s 80th birth anniversary. Apart from Nagarik, the section screens almost all his works, plus Ekti Nadir Naam, Anup Singh?s documentary on Ghatak. There will also be a dialogue among film-makers, actors and critics on ?Parallel voices in Indian cinema?.

With the maverick film-maker?s wife Surama Ghatak as chief guest, the panel will comprise Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Rajat Kapoor, Mani Kaul, Ketan Mehta, Saeed Mirza, Sudhir Misra, Konkona Sen Sharma and Kumar Shahani.