Panaji: India’s biggest state-backed film festival, the 45th International Film Festival of India 2014, opened in Goa on Thursday with an impressive line-up of over 179 films that will be screened over the next ten days.
This year’s festival is also special for another reason: Two of the biggest stars of the Indian film industry, Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth, came together for the opening ceremony at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee indoor stadium on the outskirts of the state capital Panaji.
While Bachchan was the chief guest for the ceremony, Rajinikanth was honoured with the Centenary Award for the Film Personality of the Year.
The festival will open with Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s ‘The President’. The Hong Kong-based director – Wong Kar-wai, whose film will bring down the curtains on Thursday – will also receive the lifetime achievement award on the last day of the extravaganza.
The 11-day festival will also screen 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.
Retrospective sections on Gulzar and Jahnu Baruah, special homage films on Richard Attenborough, Robin Williams, Zohra Sehgal, Suchitra Sen, and special tribute to Farooq Sheikh would be other attractions this year.
A special section of films that focus on dance, personality based retrospectives, and masterclasses or specialised workshops conducted by master artistes will also form a part of IFFI 2014.