Kolkata International Film Festival 2017: Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan to attend opening ceremony

The wait is over. The 23rd Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) is right around the corner. This year, the festival will feature 144 movies from 65 different countries. These movies will be screened under 18 categories across 12 venues. The festival starts with the inauguration ceremony scheduled on 10 November and will continue till 17 November. [caption id=“attachment_4197675” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Kamal Haasan and Amitabh Bachchan[/caption] Just like each year, the inauguration ceremony will be a starry affair in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. It has been confirmed by the authorities that Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Kamal Haasan, along with Kajol and Mahesh Bhatt, will be present at the lamp lighting ceremony at Netaji Indoor stadium. Twelve films from Britain will be featured in the festival. English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, whose claim to fame in world cinema is Angelina Jolie starrer A Mighty Heart, is expected to be present at the opening ceremony. An Iranian film named Yellow will be featured as the inaugural movie at the stadium. “As many as 13 films from Britain will be shown during the festival while six films of acclaimed English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom will be screened as part of retrospective,” KIFF Director Yadab Mandal said to IANS. KIFF, being the second oldest film festival in the country, will also be paying homage to veterans like Om Puri, Tom Alter and Ramananda Sengupta. Three films that had these veterans involved in them will be showcased at the festival, namely Headmaster, which had Ramananda Sengupta as the cinematographer, Tom Alter starrer Shatranj Ke Khiladi and Om Puri starrer cult Sadgati. As the excitement around the festival increases, we have done a low down on the major happenings and films to be featured at the upcoming event:

• This year’s competitive section has been named as ‘Innovation in Moving Images’ with a prize money of Rs 51 lakh for the best film and Rs 21 lakh for the best director
• Jean-Luc Godard’s The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company (1986), which was made for television, will be featured
• The Best Assamese Film award winning flick Adil Hussain starrer Maj Rati Keteki by Santwana Bordoloi is expected to be screened
• Major films to be screened at the festival are Kannada film Reservation, Rajeev Shinde’s Konkoni flick K Sera Sera, Malayalam film Maheshinte Prathikaaram by Dileesh Pothan, Mikhil Musale’s Gujarati hit Wrong Side Raju and Pelli Choopulu, a Tamil film by Tharun Bhascker.
• Indian Languages Competition section will be introduced this year. Under this section, 10 films in nine different languages will be featured. The best film will win a prize money of Rs 7,00,000 and the best director will be awarded Rs 5,00,000.

With inputs from IANS.