Hindi films not national cinema, says Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Mumbai, Aug 16 (PTI) National award winning filmmakerAdoor Gopalakrishnan says Bollywood films are not "nationalcinema" as Hindi is just one among the many languages in whichmovies are made in the country. The 75-year-old director feels the term ‘regionalcinema’ is wrongly used to club together movies made indifferent languages. "We have this wrong habit of calling films made indifferent languages as ‘regional cinema’. It is a very wrongterm. We are all national cinema as such. People think Hindicinema is national cinema, no it is not," he told reportershere. "It (Hindi cinema) is made in one language, among themany officially recognised languages, that’s all. Every filmmade in this country is a national cinema, not regionalcinema," he added. The filmmaker said it is important for people to watchmovies of other languages and regions. "So it is very important for audience outside theirrespective language and regions to see these films. Probablythe only filmmaker who has transcended this barrier isSatyajit Ray. "Nobody talks about him as a Bengali filmmaker. He isknown as an Indian filmmaker. That’s a right way to say aboutfilmmakers in the country." The director was speaking at a press meet organised byGateway LitFest for celebrating his 50 years in the filmindustry. He also spoke about his upcoming film "Pinneyum", aromantic-drama featuring popular pair of Malayalam cinema,actors Dileep and Kavya Madhavan. Gopalakrishnan said he is happy that for the firsttime his film will be releasing across several North Indiancities besides all the metros. "This is the first time that a film of mine is gettinga really wide release, not only in Kerala but outside of it aswell. This film will be screened in all the metro cities… "It is very important for us to reach an audiencehere. Not only Malayalam-speaking but even non-Malayalamspeaking audience." "Pinneyum", scheduled to release this Friday, alsostars Marathi actor Subodh Bhave. PTI JUR RSY RGBAS