A film industry delegation reached a warm and sultry Vietnam on the morning of 12th August to attend the Namaste Vietnam Festival. The festival, which started on August 12 and will go on till August 21, was formally inaugurated in Ho Chi Minh City on August 13 at the iconic Independence Palace. Award-winning film producer and actor Rahul Mittra, actress Raima Sen, renowned filmmaker Rahul Rawail, writer-directors Rumy Jafry, Shree Narayan Singh and Umesh Shukla, producers Kumar Mangat, Nitin Tej Ahuja, Chandrakant Singh and Kiran Kumar Koneru, trade analyst Komal Nahta, Assamese actor-producer Sulakhyana Baruah, leading Manipuri actress Soma Laishram, and well-known Assamese actress Himakshi Kalita comprised the Indian contingent which inaugurated the Namaste India Festival by lighting the traditional lamp along with the Indian ambassador in Vietnam, His Excellency Pranay Verma.
Rahul Mittra is leading the film delegation to this first ever festival hosted by ambassador Pranay Verma, consul general of India, Dr. Madan Mohan Sethi, and curator Captain Rahul Bali. The festival commemorates 75 years of Indian independence and 50 years of India-Vietnam relations.
The festival saw both, Indians settled in the country and the Vietnamese, turn out in large numbers at the inauguration ceremony which was followed by spectacular Indian classical and Vietnamese folk dance performances. It is in consonance with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Act East Policy. It is hoped that festivals like this will give an impetus to trade, commerce, art including cinema between the two countries. Currently, Indian films are not screened in Vietnam which also does not have a robust entertainment industry of its own.
Rahul Rawail presented copies of his popular book, Raj Kapoor: The Master At Work, to the dignitaries at the inaugural function, amidst applause.
A day before that, consul general Dr. Sethi hosted a dinner party on the sprawling lawns in front of his palatial bungalow. Luckily, a heavy shower did not play spoilsport because it came and went before the dinner party. But it did make the weather more humid so that it was difficult to decide what was more — the warmth in the atmosphere or the warmth of the people of Vietnam.