A COLLECTION of South Indian films never before shown to a Western audience were premiered at a film festival in Bournemouth last weekend.

The six films, previously unreleased with English subtitles, were shown at Arts University Bournemouth’s South Indian Film Festival.

Third-year film student Shashi Wilson-Joshi curated the event in collaboration with subtitlist Rekhs Haricharan, who has translated more than 200 Indian films into English.

Shashi said: “This unique festival shares her (Rekhs’) dream of bringing Indian cinema to a new audience.

“The cinema of South Asia has been painfully underrepresented in the West for too long, and the cliches and stereotypes associated with mainstream Bollywood are in need of being reconsidered.”

The festival took place between June 6 and 8 and was open to both students and members of the public.

Screenings were followed by question and answer sessions with cast and crew via the internet, many of who are household names in India.

Shashi said: “We aimed to start an important conversation with audiences and filmmaker alike surrounding the lack of recognition for Indian films worldwide.

“Is it poor distribution and subtitling which keeps these films from the western mainstream or simply a cultural clash?”