Kolkata International Film Festival: Amitabh, Shah Rukh, Kamal Haasan to share stage with CM Mamata Banerjee

At the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata Thursday. Subham Dutta

CHIEF MINISTER Mamata Banerjee is set to inaugurate the seven-day 23rd edition of Kolkata International Film Festival at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Friday in the presence of a galaxy of stars. On the eve of the inauguration, Mamata wrote on Facebook: “Starting tomorrow is the much-awaited celebration of films, the 23rd Kolkata International Film Festival.” The post was accompanied by a photograph of the festival’s inauguration invite.

Actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Kamal Haasan, along with director Mahesh Bhatt, will attend the inaugural ceremony, which will be preceded by a cultural event. Iranian filmmaker Mostafa Taghizadeh’s Yellow will be screened right after the inaugural ceremony.

The festival will see 143 films, by 135 directors from 53 countries, being screened across 12 venues in Kolkata. This year, while Britain will be the “focus country”, the festival will pay homage to cinematographer Ramananda Sengupta and actors Om Puri and Tom Alter.

Coming as a treat to cine buffs, Jean-Luc Godard’s The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company (Grandeur et Decadence d’un Petit Commerce de Cinema) — made for French television in 1986 and released in a cinematic format at France in October — will be screened at the festival. Festival organisers said this will be the first time that the film will be screened outside France.

Another major attraction will be the exhibition of camera and other equipment used by directors like Lumiere Brothers, Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak.

In addition, movies made in rare languages will be screened. Eight films in Monpa, Konkani, Kodava, Boro, Dogri, Maithili, Khasi and Chakma languages will feature in the ‘Unheard India: Rare Indian Languages’ section. This year, the festival will also introduce a new section, ‘Competition on Indian Language films’, to promote regional Indian cinema. While the best film in this category will win a prize money of Rs 7 lakh, the best director will get Rs 5 lakh. Ten films in nine languages will be screened in this section.

Delegates from countries like Italy, Germany, Turkey, Morocco, Iran, Serbia, UK, China, Sri Lanka, Argentina and others will attend the festival.