The 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa obtained off to a spectacular begin on Nov. 20, with the most effective of Bollywood on show.

A close to full home on the 4,000-seater capability Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium witnessed performances from Bollywood stars Varun Dhawan, whose subsequent movie “Bhediya” is premiering on the competition, and Mrunal Thakur. There have been on-stage appearances from A-listers Ajay Devgn, Kartik Aaryan, Manoj Bajpayee, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal and Sara Ali Khan. Actor Aparshakti Khurana compered the night.

More from Variety

South Indian cinema star Catherine Tresa Alexander carried out to a medley of Telugu, Tamil and Kannada-language cinema hit songs and the southern industries have been additionally represented by “RRR” and “Baahubali” author Vijayendra Prasad.

Presiding over proceedings was India’s Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur. The nation is celebrating 75 years of independence and Thakur stated that India is on observe over the subsequent 25 years to develop into a worldwide movie capturing, co-production, post-production, expertise and content material hub.

“We aim to make India a powerhouse of content creation, especially regional cinema, by scaling up regional festivals,” Thakur stated. The minister additionally highlighted the South Asian movie market Film Bazaar which occurs concurrently with IFFI and that for the primary time the competition has a expertise hub to showcase the most recent improvements from the cinema world.

Goa’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant stated that the establishing of a global normal multiplex and conference heart in Goa was in its closing levels and IFFI could possibly be held there by 2025.

Spanish auteur Carlos Saura was honored with the competition’s Satyajit Ray lifetime achievement award. Saura was unable to attend as a consequence of bronchitis and accepted by way of a video speech. His daughter Anna collected the award on his behalf. There is a Saura retrospective at IFFI. South Indian megastar Chiranjeevi was accorded the IFFI Indian Film Personality of the Year award.

Story continues

Among the dignitaries current have been L. Murugan, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Ravinder Bhakar, MD of India’s National Film Development Corporation, which organizes IFFI alongside the Entertainment Society of Goa, and Apurva Chandra, secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Chandra learn out a letter from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which stated partially: “Films in different Indian languages are reaching out to a larger international audience and are being increasingly appreciated across the world. As the biggest film festival of India, IFFI promotes an invigorating synergy between delegates from different nations and societies united by cinema.”

The competition opened with Austrian movie “Alma & Oskar,” directed by Dieter Berner. IFFI runs Nov. 20-28.

Best of Variety

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the most recent information, comply with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.