It was a feeble start to the 8th International Children Film Festival on Wednesday evening. The attendance was very poor. The eleven kannada films selected cast and crew attended this the auditorium looked crowded.

It was not a big start for the Children India ICFF of 2013. 8th International Children Film Festival, the director of the festival NR Najunde Gowda urged for the government of Karnataka to set up a ‘Children Cultural Complex’. Conducting children film festival is very difficult. We have assembled over 135 films from 25 countries this time. We are not making 10 percent of the total number of films in India he lamented.

The 8th CIFF began with a Manipuri dance by Shreyas Bharath. The Naada Geethe was sung before the start of the event. Children from St Joseph School danced for the song Hachchevu Kannada Deepa.

The dignitaries on the dais Mayor of Bangalore Venkatesha Murthy, Dr B Saroja Devi, Puneeth Rajakumar, Basavaraju, KCN Chandrasekhar, Sa Ra Govindu,  Muralidhara Halappa, Thomas D Souza, SK Bhagwan, A Ganesh, KV Chandrasekhar were present to light the lamp. Child actors Master Snehith, Maste r Chiranjeevi, children from South Korea and Netherland joined the event.

One minute silence was observed for the demise of noted producer and director S Ramanathan.