On
Thursday,
if
you
are
in
Goa,
you
may
just
be
in
chance
to
collect
some
stardust.
The
45th
edition
of
the
IFFI,
which
gets
underway
on
Thursday,
is
all
set
to
host
a
coming
together
of
two
celestial
objects,
Rajnikanth
and
Amitabh
Bachchan,
who
have
helped
millions
of
Indian
cinema
lovers
soar
into
orbit
over
decades.
The
duo,
two
supreme
stars
of
a
galaxy
called
Bollywood
will
attend
the
inauguration
ceremony
at
the
Syama
Prasad
Mookerjee
indoor
stadium
on
the
outskirts
of
the
state
capital
on
November
20.
While
Big
B
will
be
the
chief
guest
at
the
event,
the
Nizam
of
the
Southern
cinema
Rajnikanth
will
be
present
to
accept
the
Centenary
award
for
Indian
Film
personality
of
the
year
at
a
ceremony
which
will
be
attended
attended
Union
ministers
for
Information
and
Broadcasting
Arun
Jaitley
(cabinet)
Rajyavardhan
Rathore
(state)
and
Goa
chief
minister
Manohar
Parrikar,
among
others.
Bachchan's
entry
this
year
is
significant
because
the
tenure
of
his
absence
from
IFFI,
India's
biggest
state-backed
film
festival
has
coincided
with
his
falling
out
with
the
Congress-led
central
governments
in
the
recent
past.
The
President
directed
by
Mohsen
Makhmalbaf
will
be
the
opening
film
of
the
fest,
while
The
Grandmaster
by
Wong
Kar-wai,
who
will
incidentally
receive
the
lifetime
achievement
award,
will
be
the
closing
film.
The
11-day
festival
will
also
screen
179
films
from
75
countries
across
different
categories
which
include
World
Cinema
(61
films),
Masterstrokes
(11
films),
Festival
Kaleidoscope
(20
films),
Soul
of
Asia
(7
films),
Documentaries
(6
films),
and
Animated
Films
(6
films).
The
Indian
Panorama
section
will
include
41
feature
and
non-feature
films.
Seven
films
from
the
India's
North-Eastern
region
will
also
be
screened
at
the
event,
as
part
of
a
special
package.
"In
all
sixty
two
films
in
the
world
cinema
section
will
be
screened,
while
15
films
will
be
screened
in
the
IFFI's
competition
section
this
year," says
Shankar
Mohan,
a
senior
official
of
the
Union
ministry
for
Information
and
Broadcasting,
who
is
also
Director
of
the
IFFI.
Retrospective
sections
on
Gulzar
and
Jahnu
Baruah,
special
homage
films
on
Richard
Attenborough,
Robin
Williams,
Zohra
Sehgal,
Suchitra
Sen,
and
special
tribute
to
Farooq
Sheikh
would
be
other
attractions
this
year.
A
special
section
of
films
that
focus
on
dance,
personality
based
retrospectives,
and
Masterclasses
or
specialized
workshops
conducted
by
master
artistes
will
also
form
a
part
of
IFFI
2014.
This
positioning
of
China
as
a
guest
country
at
this
year's
event
is
a
result
of
cinematic
partnership
as
envisioned
in
an
India-China
agreement
signed
between
the
two
countries
when
Prime
Minister
Narendra
Modi
hosted
the
Chinese
President
Xi
Jinping
earlier
this
year.
"This
is
only
a
beginning
of
sorts.
We
will
see
a
greater
interaction
at
all
levels.
Right
from
representatives
of
the
Chinese
film
industry
as
well
as
other
cultural
exchanges
between
the
two
countries," Mohan
said.
The
organization
of
the
latest
edition
of
IFFI
has
also
seen
its
share
of
controversy,
with
the
main
opposition
party,
the
Congress,
alleging
a
tendering
scam
in
creation
of
temporary
infrastructure
for
the
event,
a
charge
which
the
organisers
have
rubbished.
The
festival
will
also
pay
tribute
to
British
film
maker
Richard
Attenborough,
the
maker
of
the
iconic
film
Gandhi
who
died
in
August
this
year.
His
Academy
Award
winning
film
Gandhi
is
also
one
of
those
films
which
will
be
screened
to
the
general
audience
(non
delegates)
free
of
cost
everyday.