Dance Choreography by Dr Uma Sharma, a renowned Kathak exponent and Padma Bhushan awardee.

Accompanists: Gayan: Madho Prasad, Flute: Vinay Prasanna, Sitar: Khalid Mustafa, Padhant: Yograj Panwar and Compere: Sadhna Shrivastav

(Collaboration: Uma Sharma School of Dance and Music – Bharatiya Sangeet Sadan)

The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) faces urgent threats from climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. Regional cooperation, led by India’s soft diplomacy and ICIMOD’s apolitical role, is crucial to secure a resilient, greener, and safer future.

Speaker: Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, Director General of ICIMOD, former Minister of Agriculture and Forests (2008–2013), and former Member of Parliament, Royal Government of Bhutan

Chair: Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian scientist and Life Trustee, IIC

(55 minutes)

Director: Alexander Kronemer

Nominated for an Emmy Award in Outstanding Lighting Director and Scenic Design by the 39^th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards.

It is a powerful historical docudrama set during the Crusades. It tells the remarkable true story of Saint Francis of Assisi, who bravely crossed enemy lines to meet Sultan Muhammad Al-Kamil of Egypt. Their courageous encounter fostered mutual respect and planted the seeds of peace between Muslims and Christians in a time of brutal conflict. 

(Collaboration: Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness The Dalai Lama)

Directed by Dr. Shankar Baruah, a distinguished scholar-practitioner, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and start-up mentor

Winner of Best Animated short film in the Makizmithran Film Festival and Indian Independent Film festival.

Followed by a musical evening

Celebrating the Rains

By Minu Bakshi, a renowned Indian poet, classical singer, academic, and cultural ambassador whose distinguished career spans over four decades.

(Collaboration: The Mountain Climate Trust)

Theatrical Dance performance by Jyotsna Shourie Dance Centre. It uses select couplets from the Krishna Chalisa wherein Bharatanatyam merges with evocative Carnatic music and expressive storytelling. It showcases the different lilas of the playful child. The mentor and the protector who appears whenever hearts call for him in the complete surrender.

Accompanists: Vocalists Kalaimamani Sri O.S. Arun and Sudha Raghuraman (recorded music)

Talk by Rakesh Sood, Former Ambassador to Afghanistan, Nepal, and France, and India’s first Permanent Representative to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

A photo exhibition on this occasion will be inaugurated on Friday 8 August 2025 in Quadrangle Garden at 10:30

The Exhibition will be on view till 12 August, 2025

Rising Peril of Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century-

A World in Denial

A talk by Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Former Governor, West Bengal and Life Trustee, IIC

80 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were burnt to ashes, their residents turned into flaming torches, the world's stockpile of nuclear weapons continues to expand and threaten another cataclysmic conflagration.

Opening Remarks: Shyam Saran, President, IIC

Chair: Rakesh Sood, former ambassador and India’s first Permanent Representative to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva

(86 min;2022; Hindi, Bengali with English subtitles)

A film by Nishtha Jain, a leading documentary filmmaker from India

Winner of the Best Feature Documentary, MIFF 2024 ,Best Sound Design, MIFF 2024, Best Documentary, 42nd Bergamo Film Meeting, Italy 2024 and many others

Outside Kolkata a few jute mills crank on, virtually unchanged since the industrial revolution. Powered by steam and sweat, work is a dance to the rhythms of the century-old machines. The Golden Thread follows the weft and warp of jute work, weaving the 'fibre of the future' with the dreams and desperations of its workers.

Celebrating the Life of Situ Singh Buehler (1948–2025), a pioneer in Western classical music education, she spent over 25 years nurturing the performing arts in India and helped build Delhi into a hub for international music training and appreciation.

Carrying forward her extraordinary legacy, this concert showcases soloists from the Lyric Ensemble of Delhi, featuring repertoire from the Baroque to the Romantic, the music that Situ spent her life teaching us to love.

(Collaboration: Lyric Ensemble of Delhi)

(81 mins; English and Odiya; 2024)

Directed by Bishweshwar Das, a documentary film maker from Cuttack

A tribute to the grand old man of Indian poetry, Jayanta Mahapatra, the film is interspersed between his poems and the journeys he made in the last year of his life. The only film made on Jayanta da, is supported by The Raza Foundation, Munin Borkotoki Memorial Trust and others.