Film Heritage Foundation announces Amitabh Bachchan film festival

Mumbai: Film Heritage Foundation announced a film festival to celebrate Amitabh Bachchan's 80th birthday, as a part of which movies featuring the megastar will be screened in 17 cities across the country.

The not-for-profit organisation, founded by filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, has curated a collection of 11 blockbuster films such as 'Don', 'Kaala Patthar' and 'Kaalia', in partnership with leading multiplex chain PVR Cinemas.

The four-day day event, titled 'Bachchan Back to the Beginning', will open on October 8 and close on October 11, the star's birthday. The gala will cover 172 showcases and 30 screens across 22 cinema halls all over India.

Bachchan said he never thought he would see a day that all these films from his early career would be back on the big screen.

"It is a remarkable initiative of the 'Film Heritage Foundation' and PVR to showcase not just my work, but the work of my directors, fellow actors and technicians of the time who made these films possible. It brings back an era that is gone, but not forgotten. This is why saving India's film heritage is so important. I hope that this is just the beginning of many festivals that will celebrate landmark films of Indian cinema back on the big screen," the 79-year-old actor said.

According to the press release issued by 'Film Heritage Foundation', audiences across cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bachchan's hometown Prayagraj and others will get to see some of the superstar's landmark films in cinema halls. Other titles to be screened as part of the festival are 'Kabhie Kabhie', 'Amar Akbar Anthony', 'Namak Halaal' and many more.

Dungarpur, director of the 'Film Heritage Foundation', said, "Growing up, I was the biggest Amitabh Bachchan fan. I am so glad that the 'Film Heritage Foundation' is paying tribute to the superstar on his 80th birthday with the first-of-its-kind country-wide four-day festival. It has been a mammoth task putting together the best of the early films that launched him as a superstar and to showcase these films so that audiences across the country can enjoy the films the way they were originally screened on the big screen."