Cinema enthusiasts thronged to a theatre here Thursday to watch some of the best films offered
by India in recent years, at a 10-day festival that will showcase movies like Harishchandra Factory and Taare Zammen Par.
Inaugurating the festival, Indian Ambassador to China S Jaishankar said the popularity of Bollywood music, films and Indian television operas show that there is a market to be tapped here.
"The challenge we face is to find an appropriate framework to import Indian films here," he said.
Some of the Chinese film stars and directors also took part in the opening ceremony.
Besides Beijing, the festival would be held in Chinese cities Chongqing and Guangzhou, Chinmoy Naik, Second Secretary of the Indian Embassy here said.
The festival being organised to mark the 60th year of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China will showcase a wide variety of Indian films like Dibaker Banerjee's rib-ticking comedy Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye, Aamir
Khan's sensitive portrayal 'Taare Zameen Par', and Paresh Mokashi's 'Harishchandra Factory' depicting the birth of India cinema.
Some of the other movies to be screened here included: Aijaz Khan's 'The White Elephant', Rituparno Ghosh's Shob Charitro Kalponik and Pandiraj's 'Pasanga' among others.
The films in various Indian languages will be screened with Chinese sub titles.
China has already held its film festival in New Delhi last month during which some of its successful movies including 'Confucius' were screened.
The festival here began with the screening of the Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's Bengali movie 'Antaheen' starring Rahul Bose, Aparna Sen and Sharmila Tagore.
The Indian Film Week is being organised as part of the Festival of India - 2010, in cooperation with the Chinese State Administration for Radio, Film and TV (SARFT - Film Bureau) and the Indian Directorate of Film Festivals.