Pune: This year ‘Vasundhara Mitra’ award will be conferred upon environmentalist Parinita Dandekar, Cinema producer Gurmeet Sapal and NGO ‘Youth For Integration’ during Kirloskar Vasundhara International Film Festival (KVIFF) to be held in the city from January 4-8.  

This year, S.P College will be felicitated with  ‘Green College, Queen College’ award informed Virendra Chitrav, the festival director while speaking at a press conference held here on Wednesday. 

Chitrav shared, “Every year people and NGOs showing deep commitment towards the nature and conservation of the environment are felicitated with ‘Vasundhara Mitra’ award. This award will be presented on 4th January during the inauguration ceremony.” 

While sharing information about College level competition which was held recently, he added, “A special competition was held for creating environmental awareness. 

Around 80 colleges from the city participated in the same. S P College won the first prize, Tikaram Jagannath College got the second prize and Fergusson and Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture won the third prize. 

The winning colleges will be felicitated during  an award ceremony which will be held at Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Sanskrutik Bhavan at 11 am on 7th January. “

Kirloskar Vasundhara International Film Festival (KVIFF) will be held in the city from January 4 to 8 at Balgandharva Rangamandir and Ghole Road Art Gallery. During the festival, many national and international films based on Environment, Wildlife, Energy, Air and Water will be showcased.

The theme for this year is ‘River Pollution’. 

The organisers have shortlisted 155 films from 1,200 film entries from 28 countries. Festival Chairman Madhav Chandrachud, Convener Arti Kirloskar, Vinod Bodhankar of Sagarmitra, Narendra Chugh of Jalabiradari, and Dr Sachin Punekar of Biosphere addressed the press conference.