08 January,2010 09:06 AM IST | | Shree Lahiri
The 8th Pune International Film Festival took off with a glittering inauguration ceremony at the Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir on Jangali Maharaj Road.
Among the glitterati were the evergreen Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, music director Laxmikant, Dr Shreeram Lagoo, Rahul Bose, Konkona Sen Sharma, Jackie Shroff and Subhash Ghai.
Also on stage were Jabbar Patel, director PIFF, Suresh Kalmadi Congress MP from Pune, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and a host of foreign delegates.
Suresh Kalmadi welcomed the audience, before Jabbar Patel took over the proceedings. Patel said, "This year too, PIFF aspires to bring in some of the best films from 52 countries from across the world, covering different genres of cinema."
Rahul Bose and Konkona Sen Sharma read out the citations for the award winners.
Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma said, "This is my first time at a film festival." While speaking about Laxmikant, he said, "They were known as LP, and they have the longest playing record in the industry."
The evening concluded with Dev Anand's rhetoric on the film industry. He said, "I started in 1945 in Pune, so I'm very emotional about Pune. It is my city, which gave birth to an actor like Dev Anand."
State Minister of Finance , Sunil Tatkare said, "This film festival assumes special significance because PIFF 2010 is the official festival of government of Maharashtra."
