There was no Shah Rukh Khan, no Amitabh Bachchan. But the inauguration of the 29th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) did not lack star power thanks to Salman Khan, who declared the festival open at Netaji Indoor Stadium.
The Dabangg hero put in his maiden appearance at the event after being invited by chief minister Mamata Banerjee during his visit to her house when he came to participate in East Bengal club’s centenary celebrations in May. It is this house on Harish Chatterjee Street that was on his lips when he spoke.
“I am actually jealous that her house is even smaller than mine. Shatru saab (Shatrughan Sinha) has come to my house... Wahan baithne ka jagah nahin hai,” he said. His sea-facing apartment in Bandra has only one room, one kitchen, pantry and bedroom. Yet her Kalighat home must have left an impression. “It only shows how simple people are. They don’t need large houses,” he said.
On Tuesday, from the moment when Salman first became visible, walking in beside the chief minister, on the giant screen, the crowd roared in approval. And when he stood up to speak, he had to wait quite a while as the whistles and the applause, triggered by video clips of his hit films played on screen, just would not die down.
The Sultan of the single-screen theatres had quite a banter going with the galleries.
Called to speak after Sourav Ganguly, Shatrughan and Sonakshi Sinha, Mahesh Bhatt and Anil Kapoor, Salman complained: “The seniors have destroyed me. Kuchh bacha ki nahin baat karne ke liye. Do you want me to repeat the same thing again? No, na? Thank you very much,” he said, and made to return to his seat. The crowd, of course, would not have him leave so fast. He came back but after mouthing “Kemon achho?” he moved away again, saying “Baas”. The crowd again protested.
Salman referred with admiration to the large number of films and venues at KIFF — 219 films at 23 venues.
The number of venues has been escalated from 10 last year, with multiplex chains like Inox and PVR being included for the first time.
The focus country this year is Spain, with six films, while the special focus is on Australia. Two filmmakers, Bruce Beresford and Rolf de Heer, are attending from Down Under. Six of Beresford’s films, including the Academy Award-winning Driving Miss Daisy, will be screened as part of his retrospective.
Centenary tributes will be paid to Mrinal Sen, Dev Anand, Senegalese director-producer-writer Ousmane Sembene, Charlton Heston, Richard Attenborough, Lindsay Anderson and to singer Mukesh and lyricist Shailendra through the Basu Bhattacharya film Teesri Kasam.
The Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture will be delivered by the curator of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Laurence Kardish, on December 9 at Sisir Mancha.
Masterclasses will have Saurabh Shukla speaking on acting, Saugata Mukherjee on film production, and Manoj Bajpayee and Sudhir Mishra on acting and direction respectively at Sisir Mancha.
A panel discussion will be held on Carlos Saura on December 7, in a homage to whom two Spanish films will be screened. There will also be homages to Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, Satyajit Ray’s cinematographer Soumendu Roy and Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui, who died this year.
Two exhibitions on Mrinal Sen and Dev Anand will be inaugurated on Wednesday at the Nandan foyer and at Gaganendra Shilpa Pradarshashala, respectively.