Hailed abroad, Malli dumped back home

Ten-year-old Swetha, a student of Holy Angels School in the city, bagged the best child artiste award at the national level 1998, at the 11th International Film Festival of India 1999 and at the recently held Children8217;s Film festival in Poland. Santosh Sivan was named best director at the International Children8217;s Film festival in Poland. The music director Aslam Mustafa also won an award in Poland.

Reflecting on it, independent film-maker K. Hariharan, who has recently directed another CFSI production Dubashi, said, 8220;The condition is unfair. Most children8217;s films are short and will face elimination technically.8221; Malli8217; is 2,472 metres long.

Meanwhile, at a function organised by the CFSI here yesterday, where child artiste Swetha was felicitated by State Tourism Minister Suresh Rajan, the society made an appeal to the state government to provide them with a permanent premise for their regional office.

Others who were present at the function included Tourism Secretary M. Ramu, CFSI administrative officer V. Krishnan and distribution director K.P. Ramakrishnan.