A still from Colours of Spring. The festive images of Holi, that cut across India?s lingustic barriers, will vie with several big and small films in the International Panorama of Independent Films and Video-makers, to be held from September 29

When someone asked him to choose a topic on celluloid that could represent India abroad, Sumantra Chattopadhyay didn?t take more than a few minutes.

And, eight months after he started working on Colours of Spring, portraying vibrant images of the festival of colours, the engineer-turned-film-maker has realised his dream of reaching out to the world with ethnic India. The documentary has been chosen as the official Indian entry in the prestigious International Panorama of Independent Films and Video-makers, to be held in the Greek city of Thessaloniki from September 29.

A total of 203 films from 46 countries will compete for top honours in the festival.

The vivid images of Holi, a festival that cuts across India?s lingustic barriers and made famous by Tagore in the form of Vasantotsav in Santiniketan, will vie with several big and small films, including prize-winning documentaries from the Cannes, Toronto, Berlin and London film festivals.

?The social significance of Holi lies in the fact that it is a great leveller. It unites the big and the small, the rich and the poor. The festival inspires people to usher in a new year with love, sympathy and cooperation. That?s why I chose the subject. It represents India?s unity,? said Chattopadhyay.

?When I learnt my film will go all the way to Greece, I couldn?t believe it,? he gasped.

Chattopadhyay, who had earlier canned a documentary on the Andamans, decided to work on Holi after he met Bal Ram Singh, founder-director of the Center for Indic Studies, Massachussets University (USA), in November 2003.

Singh had seen his film on the Andamans and was very impressed. When the Center asked him whether he would work on a project portraying Indian traditions, Chattopadhyay replied that the only theme that could truly reflect the country?s ?unity in diversity? was the festival of colours.

?They not only readily agreed to the idea, but also decided to finance the film. For me, it was a dream come true,? Chattopadhyay said.

The camera started rolling in February. And the man behind it had his ideas clear: he would not only catch the colours of the festival as well as the social element, but would also unravel the mythological significance and historic tales associated with it.

Chattopadhyay, now working on the script of his first feature film, started writing stories when he was in school. He followed it up with two books: a collection of short stories and a verse novelette describing the predicament of a group of young men and women who decide to abandon their careers and take up theatre.