Goa film festival to miss Amitabh again

New Delhi, Nov 6 (UNI) The inaugural ceremony of the 37th International Film Festival of India(IFFI) at Goa, one of the most glamourous events in the world of entertainment and arts, will be a two and half hour extravaganza lit with the electrifying presence of many stars of today and yesteryears.

However, super star and heart-throb of millions Amitabh Bachhah will again be missing from the scene.

Mr Bachchan's name as chief guest for last year's IFFI was withdrawn at the last moment, which had created a great controversy, and instead of him octogenarian actor Dev Anand opened the festival.

Besides Sashi Kapoor as chief guest at this year's opening function, Bollywood star Anil Kapur and Bengali actor Prasenjit will be the guest of honour at the ceremony, and actress Vidya Balan will be the 'thali' girl.

'Ever green' Dev Anand, Bipashu Basu, Konkana Sen will be among several stars to add to glamour quotient, Jt Secertary Films Pyarelal said here while addressing a joint press conference with Chief Secretray, Goa JP Singh and Ms Nandni Paliwal of the Entertainment Society of Goa(ESG), the nodal agancy for holding the festival.

A question as to why Amitabh was missing from the scene was left answered.

Ms Paliwal said the 11-day festival would start with the Penelope Cruz starrer 'Volver', a comedy that bagged the best screenplay and best actress awards at the Festival de Cannes and sign off with Brad Pitt's 'Babel', winner of the best director award at Cannes.

Internationally acclaimed films from Asia, Africa and Latin America would compete for the Golden Peacock Award while 40 countries from around the world would showcase cinematic creativity in the 'Cinema of The World' section.

'In fact, ESG is in the process of making a yearly event calendar encouraging associated ventures with international brands in the field of cinema and will work towards making Goa the entertainment heart of the country,'' she said.

But this year's festival will not be just about films, its 240 hours of sheer entertainment and fun. The festival schedule is this time packed with world premieres, film bazars, children's workshops, street animation and music concert.

There will be a concert devoted to legendary music director RD Burman. One concert will figure Sonu Nogam and there will also be a performance by famous US pop group Boney M.

The Goa Chief Secertary said that this year's festival theme was 'unity in diversity' of the country.

''It will be a very inclusive festival, as we have tried to reach out to the regional cinema to the maximum,'' he said.

''We are also trying to improve logistics and infrastructure. We are pitching Goa as a niche area for filming locale and other activities and business relating to film production,'' he said.

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