A retrospective on Amitabh Bachchan, celebrating his life and works, will be one of the highlights of the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), to be held from December 15-22, a West Bengal minister said.
A total of 183 films from 42 countries, including 52 shorts and documentaries, will be screened for cinephiles in 10 venues over a span of eight days, state sports and youth affairs minister Aroop Biswas said at a press meet where the event's logo was also unveiled.
Bachchan's 1973 film Abhimaan, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, will be screened as the inaugural film, Biswas told reporters.
Deewar and Kala Patthar will also be shown as part of the Bachchan retrospective.
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Bachchan, accompanied by his wife and actor Jaya Bachchan, will attend the inauguration at Netaji Indoor Stadium along with Shah Rukh Khan, in the presence of Governor C V Ananda Bose and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
A second exhibition on celebrated director Jean-Luc Godard and a centenary tribute section on Hrishikesh Mukherjee have also been planned for the festival. Other directors who would be honoured at KIFF include Asit Sen and Tarun Majumder.
The KIFF will introduce a new section 'Game On' this year, under which seven sports films including 83, MS Dhoni, The Untold Story and Koni (1984) will be screened.
Renowned director Sudhir Mishra, known for his genre of realistic films, will deliver the prestigious Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture, an integral part of the KIFF since its inception, this year's topic is 'Understanding cinema in changing times of OTT'.
KIFF chairperson Raj Chakraborty, a well-known director in the Bengali film industry, state cultural affairs minister Indranil Sen and superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee were among others present at Saturday's press meet.
The venues, where the films will be screened, include Cinema Centenary Building, Rabindra Sadan, Nandan 1, 2 and 3, Sisir Manch, Rabindra Okakura Bhavan and Nazrul Tirtha.
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