Calcutta: Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the 27th Calcutta International Film Festival (KIFF) on Monday.
This year’s festival is dedicated to veteran director Satyajit Ray as part of his 100th birthday.
Inaugurating the festival, the Prime Minister claimed that her government is working to elevate the people and also remembered the actors, directors and singers who died earlier this year.
“There will be an exhibition on Satyajit Ray with works by Lata Mangeshkar, Bappi Lahiri, Dilip Kumar, Sandhya Mukherjee, Soumitra Chatterjee, Swatilekha Sengupta, Abhishek Chatterjee and Buddhadeb Dasgupta. Babi da even wanted me to write him songs. “They were all veterans,” Mamata said.
Mamata said that earlier KIFF was canceled due to the pandemic.
“Everyone said we would not have run the film festival. Last year, we did it on a small scale in Nabanna and this year I said we would do it. “Several Satyajit Ray films will be screened and a total of 163 films will be screened in 42 countries,” he added.
It is noted that this year the theme country of KIFF is Finland.
Bollywood actor and TMC MP Shatrughan Sinha was also present on the show.
Addressing the crowd, TMC Asansol MP thanked Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee and the people of Asansol for giving him the opportunity to serve the people of Bengal.
“Bengal has created many legends. I’m close to Bengal. Now after winning the bypoll, the challenge is greater. “I will serve the people of Bengal and India in particular.”
The Bollywood actor also said he had made a Bengali film “Antarjali Jatra” directed by Gautam Ghose.
“My dream has always been to work with Manik da (Satyajit Ray), but it remained a dream. I’m a big fan of Ray. I’ve learned from Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Utpal Dutt and Ashok Kumar to name a few. Prasenjit Chattopadhyay promotes the legacy of Bengali cinema and does a good job. “I have made over 250 films but ‘Antarjali Jatra’ was my best film,” said the Khamosh actor.
Xinha also urged a special section to be dedicated to film festivals.
According to government sources, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and other Bollywood actors could not be invited due to time constraints.
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Published on: Monday, 25 April 2022, 21:10 IST
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