A four-day film festival, Wisdom Tree Festival, kicked off in Pune on Friday. Organised by the Graduates of FTII (GRAFTII), the event is a tribute to the contribution made by the Film and Television Institute of India to the Indian film industry.

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At the inaugural ceremony, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar lauded the contribution of the FTII to the film industry. He predicted the Indian film industry would soon flourish internationally.

The event was attended by the likes of Jaya Bachchan, Paintal, Mita Vashist, Rameshwari, Raza Murad, Zarina Wahab and Tom Alter.

Senior teachers, formerly associated with FTII, were felicitated followed by the screening of a 20-minute film, Two Or Three Things We'd Like To Say About Ourselves, made by ex-student Karan Bali.

The festival will screen the cream of feature films, documentaries, short fiction, commercials and television programmes and select diploma films.

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