mainstream cinema section

Panaji, Nov 24 (UNI) The Indian Mainstream Cinema section of IFFI-2006 opened at the Kala Academy here this evening with the screening of this year's biggest hit ''Rang De Basanti''.

Director Rakesh Mehra, actors Siddharth and Atul Kulkarni were present at the screening. Serpentine queues were witnessed at the venue for the screening. When Sridevi did not turn up on time for the inauguration, festival director V B Pyarelal did the inauguration.

Accompanied by husband Boney Kapoor, Sridevi clad in a red saree with golden work arrived nearly 30 minutes after the screening had begun. Boney was apologetic for the delay and told the waiting mediapersons outside the gates that her flight from Mumbai was delayed due to bad weather and one of their kids was not keeping well.

The Indian Mainstream segment has 12 entries which have been successful at the box office. Of these five are in Hindi including ''Lage Raho Munnabhai,'' two are in Tamil and Telugu and one film each in Bengali, Malyalam and Assamese.

UNI MR MIR RAI2206