It is December, the time of the year when Calcutta celebrates its love for films with its grand international film festival. The 29th Kolkata International Film Festival was inaugurated with a gala ceremony on December 5 at Netaji Indoor Stadium. Actors June and Churni Ganguly, the graceful hosts of the evening, welcomed the chief guests from the Bollywood film industry and international filmmakers and actors, who are jury members at the festival this year. Distinguished personalities of the global film fraternity joined the Bengali film fraternity to celebrate the evening with dance and music performances and a felicitation ceremony. Glimpses:

Australian filmmaker Bruce Beresford was felicitated by Arindam Sil

(Clockwise from left) Dev felicitated Chiranjeet; Mimi Chakraborty felicitated Anjan Dutt; Prosenjit Chatterjee felicitated Shatrughan Sinha and Sonakshi; Dev felicitated Salman Khan

(Clockwise from left) Rukmini Maitra felicitated Sonakshi Sinha; Raj Chakraborty felicitated Sabyasachi Chakrabarty; Soham Chakraborty felicitated Anil Kapoor; Rituparna Sengupta felicitated Mahesh Bhatt

Dona Ganguly put on a graceful performance with her group

(Clockwise from left) Koel Mallick felicitated Goutam Ghose

Sabitri Chatterjee shared a warm moment on stage with Mamata Banerjee, Salman Khan, Nussrat Jahan, Chiranjeet and Raj Chakraborty during her felicitation

Rituparna Sengupta felicitated Tigmanshu Dhulia

Koel Mallick felicitated yesteryear actress Madhabi Mukherjee

(Clockwise from left) Tota Roy Choudhury felicitated Paran Bandopadhyay

Singers Iman Chakraborty, Manomay Bhattacharya, Aditi Munshi, Indranil Sen, Sreeradha Bandyopadhyay and Rupankar Bagchi began the evening on a melodious note

Mimi Chakraborty shared a warm moment on stage with Prosenjit Chatterjee

Salman Khan and Sonakshi Sinha entertained the audience with their signature dance steps from Hud hud dabangg

(Clockwise from left) Sayantika Banerjee felicitated Sandip Ray; Srabanti Chatterjee felicitated Sourav Ganguly; Prosenjit Chatterjee felicitated Dipankar De; Prosenjit Chatterjee felicitated Raj Chakraborty