kanpur the muchawaited annual cultural festival of indian institute of technology kanpur iitk antaragni2010 began at the institutes premises here on thursday the fest was inaugurated by film director mahesh bhatt and iitk director s g dhande the two lit the lamp in the main auditorium of the institute and said in their inaugural speeches that such cultural events are important for the students to develop their allround personalitythe closing of the inaugural ceremony paved the way for the start of the hugely popular play love letters which is the longest running english play in india starring rajit kapur and shernaz patel it is for the first time that a professional play was staged at the iitk the play traces the trials and tribulations in lives of both the lead actors spanning over five decades this year also the iitk has selected a unique theme for antaragni this years theme indian cinema focusses on the vivid facets of countrys cinema meanwhile the sprawling iitkanpur campus came alive with the presence of a large number of outstation students who have come to take part in a plethora of competitions these competitions will be include dance dramatics english and hindi literary events fine arts films and photography musicals and quizzes the excitement was much visible on the faces of the participants for being a part of anataragni this year with a view to make it a large function several competitions have been lined up to take place in next three days an overall championship trophy shall be presented to the best performing college in all the eight categories of competitions it was because of this fact that the students were seen practising for their respective events on thursday over 1500 students from 80 educational institutes are participating in antaragni this year jaspreet kaur a delhi university student who has come to participate in anatargni expressed her joy of being a part of the such a grand event i am a little uneasy at the moment as i have never been out of my city earlier but soon i will adjust to this new place said jaspreet jaspreet khanduja another student of delhi university was excited to be in the iitkanpur for the third time the two girls along with their group were witnessed practising for the nukkad natak competition scheduled to be held on friday