Panaji (PTI): The third South Asian Film Festival (SAFF) got underway here on Friday with film makers stressing the need to spread the message of peace and harmony through cinema, whose language of emotion knows no barriers.

Film makers like Madhur Bhandarkar, Randhir Kapoor, Sudhir Mishra, Pooja Bhatt, Zeba Bakhthiyar from Pakistan, Jigme Wangchuk from Bhutan, Abdul Latifi from Aghanistan were felicitated in the brief inaugural ceremony.

Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, while speaking on the occasion, said SAFF had come to stay in Goa and his government was focussing to make the state as an international destination of film festivals.

Randhir Kapoor, who directed "Heena" with Zeba Bhaktiyar in the lead in the early 90s, said films are based on emotions.

"The emotions of pain, sorrow, laughter which we experience while watching films have one language and all the South Asian countries speak the same language. Dissolving boundaries through cinema is a welcome gesture and I am happy to be part of it," he added.

Pooja Bhatt felt the festival theme of dissolving boundaries was a very relevant issue.

"The medium of cinema is a soft power which needs to be used continously and effectively to bridge divides between people of different countries," she added.

Pooja recalled that her film as a director "Paap" was a box office failure in India but entered the Limca book of records for being the first Indian film to be premiered in Pakistan.