Kolkata, Dec 5 : The 29th Kolkata International Film Festival 2023 was unveiled at a glittering ceremony on Tuesday at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, graced by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bollywood stars like Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, actor turned politician Shatrughan
Sinha, Sonakshi Sinha, former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, director Mahesh Bhatt among others.
The 8-day annual event will showcase some 219 movies from 39 countries across 23 venues in this metropolis. Of the 72 feature films, and 50 are short films and documentaries.
In the International Competition (Innovation in Moving Images) category, 13 movies will contest for Golden Royal Bengal Trophies in the Best Film and Best Director categories, with prize money of Rs 51 lakh and Rs 21 lakh, respectively.
On December 9, the Oscar award winning Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Laurence Kardish and Bollywood actors Manoj Bajpayee and Sudhir Mishra will lead a masterclass session on acting and direction. Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy, starring Sunny Leone and Rahul
Bhat in lead roles, will also be screened during the festival.
Salman Khan whilst speaking said Shatrughan Sinha, Anil Kapoor and Mahesh Bhatt took everything he had thought of including in his speech and lauded the KIFF and called it one of the biggest film festivals he has ever been to.
Anil Kapoor also praised the Bengali motion pictures and said its impact on cinemas around the globe.
He lauded the Bengali artists, producers, directors, screenwriters, composers and described Uttam Kumar as an institution.
Anil Kapoor also paid tribute to movie maestro Satyajit Ray and his films like Nayak (1966).
At the event, Ganguly said, “Welcome to Kolkata, my favourite Mr Salman Khan. It’s a coincidence that I have met him for the first time here in person. Unfortunately, we never met before.”