46th IFFI takes off at Goa with national and international celebrities

Ilaiyaraaja receives Centenary Award-Indian Film Personality of the Year from Honourable Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

The 46th edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) started off in Goa with a gala show held at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium. Hon'ble Minister, I&B, Finance & Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley today inaugurated the film festival in the presence of Chief Guest Anil Kapoor along with Defence Minister, Shri Manohar Parrikar, Governor of Goa, Smt. Mridula Sinha, Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Laxmikant Parsekar, Minister of State, I&B Shri Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Secretary, I&B, Shri Sunil Arora among other national and international dignitaries.

Anil Kapoor (pictured with host Aditi Rao Hydari) chaired the event as the chief guest

The opening ceremony was graced by various national and international actors and filmmakers like Shekhar Kapur, Michael Radford, Julia Jentsch, Suha Arraf, Jeon Kyu-Hwan, Sonakshi Sinha, Kabir Khan, Sudhir Mishra and the entire team of the opening film 'The Man Who Knew Infinity' including director Mathew L. Brown, actor Dev Patel, Devika Bhise and Toby Jones. The event was compered by actors Ayushmann Khurrana and Aditi Rao Hydari.

The amazingly energetic performances by Indian dancer and choreographer, Terence Lewis, specializing in contemporary dance and his troupe kept the audience spell-bound.

Ilaiyaraaja receives Centenary Award-Indian Film Personality of the Year from Honourable Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

Addressing the ceremony, Shri Arun Jaitley said, "From romance to historical to social turmoil, cinema has provided many opportunities to feel every moment of life. IFFI is most awaited event of the year where the great film talents assemble at a single platform. Goa has been the perfect venue and there cannot be any perfect destination for a film festival. The chief guest of the evening Mr. Anil Kapoor has a unique charisma that entertains millions of audience around the world. The Centenary Award winner Shri Ilaiyaraaja is an iconic figure in the music field and his work inspires the musicians all over the world. This year's Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Russian filmmaker and actor Nikita Mikhalkov."

The Honourable I&B Minister also stated that as Indian cinema is marching ahead towards global glory, the festival is enhancing, enlarging, and enriching the film viewing experience of local as well as international audience. He felicitated the International Jury and conferred the Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year to the ace music composer Shri Ilaiyaraaja.

The chief guest of the ceremony, Anil Kapoor said, "A film festival is great platform to promote film and reach out to large and diversified audience. IFFI is gaining huge popularity amongst the global audience with its selection of good films and different interactive sections. It is an honour to share the stage with the legendry Shri Ilaiyaraaja. He has been the music composer of my second film and I appreciate the film festival for bestowing him the Centenary Award."

The Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri. Arun Jaitley released a book ‘Legends of Indian Silver Screen" at the opening of IFFI 2015 here today. The book has been brought out by the Publications Division of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Shri Jaitley released the book in the presence of actress Sonakshi Sinha, director Kabir Khan and actress Devika Bhise.

The 11-day film festival will bring a perfect mélange of remarkable films and celebrities from across the world. It will screen 187 films from 89 countries in World Cinema section while 26 Feature and 21 non-feature films will be screened in Indian Panorama section. The festival is all set to become more exciting internationally with 26 Oscar entries and 120 premieres to be screened in different sections. The International Competition will have 15 films from countries like Argentina, Japan, Iran, Palestine, France etc. This year Spain is the Focus Country of the festival. Organized by Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in collaboration with Government of Goa and Entertainment Society of Goa, the festival will conclude on 30th November.