CM to inaugurate 27th Kolkata film fest virtually on Jan 7
KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will inaugurate the 27th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) on January 7 virtually from Nabanna Sabhaghar.
This year, due to the increasing number of Covid cases, the shows will be run with 50 per cent seating capacity. According to Indranil Sen, minister of state (MoS) for Information and Culture and also the co-chief advisor of the KIFF, this year 161 films from 42 countries have been selected. These films have been shortlisted from 1,698 films from 71 countries. During the announcement of the KIFF, noted film director Haranath Chakraborty, actor Arindam Sil, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Sayantika Banerjee and others were present.
Aranyer Din Ratri, a masterpiece by Satyajit Ray, has been selected as the inaugural film at the 27th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF).
This film has been selected as a tribute to Ray's centenary. Director Shoojit Sircar will deliver the Satyajit Ray memorial lecture. Sircar's latest movie Sardar Udham Singh will be screened in KIFF. Also, Aparna Sen's film 'The Rapist' and Raj Chakraborty's film 'Dharmajuddha' will be screened in the same segment.
Chakraborty's film will be screened as a tribute to Swatilekha Sengupta, who acted in the film and passed away this year. Special tribute will be given to the eminent film personalities like Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Dilip Kumar, Sumitra Bhave, Jean Paul Belmondo and Jean Claude Carriere as well.
This year, the films will be screened in 10 venues which are Nandan 1, 2 and 3, Rabindra Sadan, Sisir Mancha, Conference hall of Kolkata Information Centre, Chalachitra Satabarsha Bhavan, Rabindra Okakura Bhavan along with Nazrul Tirtha 1 and 2.
About 62 Bengali films will be screened.
This apart, Sil informed that an initiative had been taken to honour the actors and technicians, who had worked with Ray at Rabindra Sadan on January 8. So far, 27 such people have been invited, out of which 13 persons confirmed their presence during the programme.
