IFFI: Grand opening ceremony with Rajnikanth, Big B and a Chinese twist

Mayabhushan Nagvenkar

Panaji: Never before has the buzz been so electric as far inaugural day of the 45th edition of the International Film Festival of India is concerned.

Otherwise marked with the trademark marigolds, fading actors posing as masters of ceremony, the presence of the babu, complete with an ill-fitting suit, who heads the Union ministry of Information and Broadcasting and his boss, the Union minister in his unsullied, starched threads, this year the presence of fiery film legends Rajnikanth and Amitabh Bachchan on IFFI’s inaugural stage today could generate static enough to power the state through to Christmas.

Bachchan, who shared a semi-cordial relationship with the Congress party makes a comeback to India’s biggest film event, for the first time in more than a decade, after the exit of Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre and Rajnikanth, err… who can stop the-man-who-outruns-bullets anyway.

“We are proud to have them both here. Amitabh Bachchan will be the chief guest at the inauguration ceremony and Rajnikanth will be awarded the Centenary award for Film Personality of the year,” Festival Director Shankar Mohan told Firstpost. Bachchan will be accompanied by his wife and Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan to the opening ceremony, where two-time National Award winning actress and danseuse Shobhana will also perform.

The ceremony will see a galaxy of Bollywood stars, besides Union ministers in the form of Union ministers for Information and Broadcasting (I&B) and defence (respectively) Arun Jaitley, Manohar Parrikar, Minister of state for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore and Goa chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar among others.

‘The President’ directed by noted Iranian film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf will be screened as the festival’s opening film, while “The Grandmaster” by noted Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-wai, who will incidentally also receive the lifetime achievement award, will be the festival’s closing film.

The 11-day festival will also screen as many as 179 films from 75 countries across different categories which include World Cinema (61 films), Masterstrokes (11 films), Festival Kaleidoscope (20 films), Soul of Asia (7 films), Documentaries (6 films), and Animated Films (6 films). The Indian Panorama section will include 41 feature and non-feature films. Seven films from the India’s North-Eastern region will also be screened at the event, as part of a special package.

“In all sixty two films in the world cinema section will be screened, while 15 films will be screened in the IFFI’s competition section this year,” says Shankar Mohan, a senior official of the Union ministry for Information and Broadcasting, who is also Director of the IFFI. Mohan also said that as many as 28 films which were either nominated to the Academy awards or have won the coveted Oscar will be screened at the festival, underlining the pedigree of the films which have been sourced to this IFFI.

“As far as prize money goes, a total of Rs 1.2 crore will be awarded to winners at the festival,” Mohan also said.

IFFI this year, will also have a special focus on India’s bitter-sweet neighbour China. China’s focus is seen as a result of cinematic partnership as envisioned in an Indo-China agreement signed between the two countries when Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this year.

“This is only a beginning of sorts. We will see a greater interaction at all levels. Right from representatives of the Chinese film industry as well as other cultural exchanges between the two countries,” Mohan said, adding that a “high level delegation” from the Chinese film industry would also make its presence felt at the event.

IFFI this year will also pay tribute to British film maker Richard Attenborough, who made of the iconic Oscar award-winning film ‘Gandhi’. Attenborough died in August this year and as a tribute to the great filmmaker, ‘Gandhi’ is among those films which will be screened to the general audience free of cost on a large public screen daily.