The biggest event of the Indian film industry, the 37th International Film Festival Of India, is taking off on Thursday, November 30 and will go on till December 3.
The festival will see the screening of over 120 films from India as well fromforeign industry, over 10 days. The festival will comprise film premieres, musical concerts, tributes, music launches and much more.
The Panaji city is all set to host the mega international event.
The festival will be provided with security by a posse of 1000 CISF Jawans.
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from daijiworld's special correspondent
Colourful inauguration on Thursday, Nov 23
Panaji: The 37th edition of international film festival of India packed with more than 200 films and 240 hours of fun and entertainment will begin from November 23 at two venues in Panaji tucked on the banks of picturesque Mandovi River.
Tagged as `India's Cannes', the ten-day long festival, besides usual film screenings will also have film giants discussing the film business at film bazaar and host of activities, open for general public, at different beaches.
The event by directorate of film festivals is hosted by entertainment society of goa, a nodal agency created by Goa government.
Sensitive and loving actor of yesteryears Shashi Kapoor will be chief guest for the inaugural ceremony slated tomorrow evening who will be given red carpet welcome to the venue. Other dignitaries include Anil Kapoor, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi and Goa's chief minister Pratapsingh Rane.
The inaugural ceremony will be followed by star-studded cultural extravaganza which will have salman khan, Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Diya Mirza, Malaika Arora Khan, Soha Ali Khan and Esha Deol along with Prabhu Deva, Bappi Lahiri, Manoj Tiwari, Harbhajan Maan, Sachin and Surpriya performing on the occasion.
Opening film Pedro Almodovar's ``Volver'' would be screened post-Inaugural session at Kala Academy's auditorium.
In addition to the film related activities, Indian Navy's sagar pawan will have aerobic display over mandovi river. Commander Yogesh Garud, who is a qualified flying instructor and commanding officer of INAS 551, the naval squadron that is privileged to fly the formation aerobic team, leads Sagar Pawan's team.
Befitting Goa's image of fun destination, Special carnival-styled float parade is planned tomorrow afternoon little before the inauguration. The parade will traverse through city streets and culminate at its outskirts.
The organizers feel that I FFI Goa, 2006 will give film artistes, directors, producers, critics and film lovers a one-stop shop to appreciate and discuss the finer nuances of quality filmmaking, view internationally acclaimed movies and create platforms for showcasing new talents.
The festival this year has been divided into broad categories like Competition Section; that will focus on the feature films by various directors and Cinema of the World (showcasing variety of world class films) along with several others that will feature the best of world cinema.
Golden Peacock (Rs. 10,00,000) award will be given for the Best Film and the Silver Peacock (Rs. 5,00,000) for the Most Promising Director. A Special Jury Award awaits a director for his individual artistic contribution. The race for the Peacock will be a hard fought battle though, since the eminent international jury comprises of Rolf De Heer (Chairman), an Award winning director from Australia, Vincent Maraval, Producer, Co-Founder of Wild Bunch, France, Olivier Assayas, Award winning director from France and Jahnu Barua, Award winning Director from Assam, India as members.
This year the festival will feature a special retrospective of Prithviraj Kapoor's films, and a special screening of Richard Attenborough's `Gandhi' will also be held to mark the centenary of Satyagraha movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi.
The festival will be closed with the closing film Babel, featuring Brad Pitt and Kate Blanchett'
Bobby Bedi to Make 300-400 Crore 'Mahabharata'
Panaji: Following films like Bandit Queen, Maqbool and Mangal Pandey under his belt, Kaleidoscope Entertainment, the Bobby Bedi-promoted film production house, is planning for a unique project on "Mahabharata".
"The project will go on for next three and half years with the budgeted cost of Rs 300 to Rs 400 crores," Beddy told PTI.
Bedi made special presentation on his unique project during "India – the Big Picture" conference organized by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on the eve of international film festival of India, 2006 in Goa. Shrinivas Dempo, deputy chairman, CII's western region council, Goa's chief secretary, J P Singh, Director of film festival, V B Pyarelal and Sabbas Joseph from Wizcraft entertainment limited were present on the occasion.
The IFFI 2006 is beginning from on Thursday in Panaji and will culminate on December 3.
"The project will herald with the talent hunt for lot of mythological characters depicted in this 4,000-year-old epic," said Bedi during the presentation. The four month long talent hunt will move into a television series on the epic, he added.
What's interesting is that besides the character hunt there will be beauty pageant to select `apsaras' and even ugly pageant to select `rakshas'. "Aim is to tackle the big problem faced by India's entertainment industry.. that is a gigantic shortage of talent," Bedi stated.
The makers of Mahabharata had organized two day-long conclave at India Habitat center, New Delhi, to debate the story.
Giving a fizz to the entire process, Bedi said, film triology, animation, gaming and picture book would also be produced so that epic goes into the hands of everyone. "For gaming, there will be all the characters of mahabharta including Arjun, Abhimanyu etc… also there will be war formations like chakravhuha," he added.
Bedi said that crossing the linguistic boundries, the Mahabharata animation book would be published. "The book will have 150 stories," he stated.
Permanent place for IFFI
International film festival of India, 2006, after getting a permanent venue in Goa will now get a permanent place in the state with Goa government planning for an international convention center in the state.
"Plans for international convention center are in final stage and it would be constructed on built own and transfer basis… the final partner for the project would be finalized in December, this year and it will complete the project in 18 months," Goa chief secretary J P Singh stated.
Participating in the conference "India – the big picture" organized by confederation of Indian industry (CII) on the eve of international film festival of India, 2006, singh said that the festival will be entirely shifted to the international convention center, fully equipped with all the facilities.
Currently, the festival is organized at two venues in Panaji city – kala academy and INOX multiplex, while international convention center is planned at Donapaula fringing Panaji city.
"In a year or two, we will holding IFFI on our own so that IFFI-Goa will be a brand to reckon with," Singh stated adding,"there is a lot of interest to stat a film city in the state and also animation park with private players evincing interest in these projects."
Stating that Goa is the best place to take forward entertainment sector a quantum jump, Singh mentioned about an agreement signed by the state government with a private firm to provide broadband connectivity in the state. "They are going to ensure that within six months every household in the state will be connected through cable," he stated.
"Entertainment industry can explore this advantage," said singh appealing industry players to come up with their plans in the state.