"Phir Milenge" director Revathy, whose film focuses on "HIV and people in a format that goes to the theatres, and not just the festival circuit", highlighted the role movies could play in the fight against the disease.

Starring big names Shilpa Shetty, Salman Khan and Abhishek Bachchan, the low-budget film highlights how Indian law is blind to discrimination against HIV-positive people at the workplace.

Also present was South African director Darrell James Roodt -- whose earlier films "Serafina!" (1992) and "Cry, The Beloved Country" (1995) -- have received global recognition for their political conscience and South African themes.

In his 2004 film "Yesterday", showcased at the Goa IFFI that is underway here, he tells the story of a young mother of the same name, who lives with her daughter Beauty, in rural KwaZulu-Natal.

Her husband is a migrant worker in the mines of Johannesburg, and the inevitable happens as in any film about HIV/AIDS.

Her husband's violent denial of both the disease and his culpability for her infection leaves Yesterday with few choices and even less support.

Later on Wednesday evening, the Big B -- Amitabh Bachchan - is to address the press with the CEO of Nelson Mandela Foundation, John Samuel, and "Yesterday's" producer Anant Singh.

"There are so many different points of view about AIDS. In Thailand, at the World AIDS Conference, I was surprised by the line of questions," said Roodt.

"What I'm attracted to is social realism...Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. South Africa has got the most democratic constitution, but we suffer from self-censorship.

"It's a very difficult country for young people to grow up in. I would like to make more films on issues that matter," said the director.

Revathy, whose "Phir Milenge" is being screened Wednesday on three TV networks to coincide with World AIDS Day, said: "It's the stigma that stops people from talking about AIDS.

"The longest living person in India contracted AIDS 21 years ago. But stigma just kills the spirit to live."

Asked whether her film had "plagiarised" the 1993 lawyer-fighting-for-AIDS-patient film "Philadelphia", Revathy conceded that "good film inspires" but cited the case of the Mumbai-based law firm Lawyers Collective, where she said an advocate had used labour law to fight for the rights of an AIDS patient.

Some other films being showcased at IFFI Goa too deal with themes of social realism, including movies from China, Iran, Israel, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Brazil and a host of countries where the glamour of the screen confronts the harsh reality of the daily lives of the vast majority.

--Indo-Asian News Service