MUMBAI: The Chicago South Asian Film Festival has selected Ketan Mehta’s film Rang Rasiya to open the festival that starts on 30 September.

The film is the story of artist Raja Ravi Varma‘s passions, obsessions and his fierce struggle for creative freedom. He hurt the religious sentiments of the people by painting nudes of Indian mythological characters. Later on, his muse Sugandha inspired him to create exquisite paintings based on mythological themes and classic literature.

As many as 27 films have been selected across a variety of genres such as comedy, drama, romance, fantasy, and reality. Among them are Athula Liyanage‘s Bambara Wallala, Geeta Malik‘s Troublemaker, Moinak Biswas and Arjun Gourisaria‘s Spring In The Colony, Hemant Gaba‘s Shuttlecock Boys, Anu Rana‘s Ring Laila, Harjant Gill‘s Roots of Love, Nasir Khan‘s Made in Pakistan, Pankaj Johar‘s documentary Still Standing and Shelley Saywell‘s documentary In the Name of the Family amongst others.

The much appreciated Nila Madhab Panda‘s I Am Kalam has been selected as the centerpiece of the film festival. It is a heartwarming story of a 13-year-old slum boy who aspires to be like former president of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Amole Gupte‘s Stanley Ka Dabba will also been screened in the feature films category of the festival.

The short film category will have Snehal Patel‘s The Eggie Files Director, Gursimran Sandhu‘s Homecoming, M.S. Srikanth‘s The Bridge, Vivek Shraya‘s Seeking Single White Male, Abi Varghese‘s The Return Address, Rakesh Chaudhary‘s The Eclipse of Taregna, Jason Wang‘s Second Best, Sofian Khan‘s Small Voices, Sandeep Sharma‘s A Portrait in Bombay and Kenneth Lawrence‘s Ronnie.

The festival will end on 2 October.