NEW DELHI:  The Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival is back after two years with the introduction of a musical section focusing on the relation between music and cinema.

The fest will feature performances by renowned artistes at Blue Frog every night till the culmination of the fest on 5 August. As part of its Turtle at the Frog program at the club, this connection between film and contemporary music will take forward the inter-disciplinary approach of Osian’s in helping to build a more vibrant cinematic culture in India. The programming at the Turtle at the Frog has been curated under the larger festival theme of Freedom of Cultural Expression and Thought.

Last year saw two cinematic events from very different ends of the spectrum of Indian cinema open up new frontiers for the relationship between Indian cinema and music - the screening of Q’s Gandu and the release of Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar. In their own different way, the films mobilized diverse segments of Indian society, especially the young, with a rebellious countercultural streak to them.

Both Q’s Gandu Circus and the Rockstar musical team with singer Mohit Chauhan in the lead will perform at the BlueFrog on Cinefan Nights. The Rockstar evening will also feature lyricist Prasoon Joshi as special guest. In addition, the event will witness performances by indie music biggies The Ska Vengers, Dev D’s Amit Trivedi and his Band, Karsh Kale and Midival Punditz with their music VJ act to the martial arts classic Enter the Dragon.

Apart from the performances,  five films will be screened at the BlueFrog representing contemporary Asian cinema’s burgeoning relationship with youth-driven music cultures.  There will be films such as ‘Roadside Fugitive’, ‘El Gusto’ and ‘Ranjana ami ar ashbo na’ in the main festival which will showcase its music and cinema focus for the year.

Organised in collaboration with the Government of Delhi, the film festival will be inaugurated tomorrow in the capital by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and will be held till 5 August 2012 at Siri Fort Complex and the Blue Frog at the Kila Complex (near Qutab Minar).

The fest will feature 175 films from around 38 countries from Asia and the Arab world including India, apart from new sections. It will have 15 World premieres, 8 International premieres, 104 Indian premieres and 13 Asian premieres. The central theme of the festival is Freedom of Creative Thought and Expression with films devoted to this subject. The participating countries include China, Estonia, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Morocco and Algeria amongst others.

Eminent film personalities such as Muzaffar Ali, Rituparno Ghosh, Irrfan, Kiran Rao, Imtiaz Ali, Dibakar Bannerjee, Anurag Kashyap, Seema Biswas, Abhay Deol, Prof. Hamid Dabashi, Layla Hatami, John Abraham, Prasoon Joshi, Victor Bannerjee, Prateik, Atiq Rahimi, Q, Rii, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey amongst a host of others will participate in discussions about the cinematic heritage of the Indian film industry.

The festival will also hold the first auction of Film Memorabilia on 31 July to mark the Centenary of Indian cinema, apart from hosting a two-day discussion on making Delhi the film hub of the country at which several eminent personalities including Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Uday Varma will speak.