All eyes on ’Rio’ for gala Oly Games opening

Mangalore Today News Network

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 05, 2016: Money matters might have weighed them down but that is unlikely to stop Rio from rolling out an opening ceremony to remember for the Olympic Games.

The opening ceremony will be seen by millions around the world today Aug 5, Friday night (Saturday morning 4.30 in India). But Fernando Meirelles, film director and one of the three creative directors for the ceremonies, insisted that the programme would keep the viewers hooked, delivering a strong and clear message.

"It is very contemporary, very pop. And, of course, it is Brazil, the music is good, whatever we are showing may not be huge but it looks good, it is in good taste. We have heart and I think that is enough," Meirelles, the director of the Oscar-nominated ’City of God’, told the Olympic News Service.’

The opening ceremony is expected to have a strong base in the Rio’s Carnival, a riot of colours, music and dance that captivates the world every year. But instead of focusing much on the hosts and their pasts - as is normally the case - the programme is expected to dwell on humankind and its future.

"Countries are always talking about themselves, their contribution to the world and how they are the centre of the universe. It’s all ’hey world, this is me, me, me," Meirelles said. "We decided to do it the other way round, we are talking about ’us’, how we should behave from now on, not just Brazil, all of mankind," he said.

Due to recession, the budget for the ceremonies was heavily cut. "When we started out, we had a budget of 113.9 million US dollars for four ceremonies (opening and closing ceremonies of both the Olympics and Paralympic Games), but now, our budget is 55.9 million US dollars. This makes it very challenging," Mierelles said.

Mierelles felt the ceremony will lift the Brazilians from their current sad mood. Hope it will be a drug for depression in Brazil. Brazilians can look at it and say that we are a cool people, we are different ethnic groups, we live together, we know how to enjoy life and we tend to be happy.