KIFF set for starry opening night

With a Rs 3 Crore-budget, comprising more than 180 films in 40 different languages directed by 140 internationally acclaimed directors from all over the world, Kolkata is all set for  18th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) Saturday.

West Bengal’s Brand Ambassador Shahrukh Khan will again attend this year’s inauguration who is in the city to promote his soon to be released film Jab Tak Hai Jaan along with actresses Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is also likely to attend the function.

The presence of these Bollywood stars will definitely provide KIFF the much needed glamour quotient this year as the event is yet to attract Bollywood bigwigs. Rather, till 2010 KIFF inaugurations featured only some well known Bengali regulars like Soumitra Chatterjee, Tarun Majumdar and Mrinal Sen.

The opening movie of the festival will be Iranian director Asghar Farhidi`s ‘A Separation’, the first Iranian movie to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Apart from the special focus on ‘Africa – Now and Then’, some sections like ‘100 years of Indian Cinema’, ‘Double centenary of Charles Dickens’, ‘Special Tribute to P K Nair’, ‘Big-Story (comprising some of Big-B’s evergreen films)’, ‘Asian & International Select’, would be the major attractions for Kolkatans. Vintage classics like ‘Raja Harishchandra’, ‘Joymati’, ‘Dhoop-Chaon’, ‘Mukti’ and several others are also scheduled to be shown at the festival.