Uttam-starrer ‘Deya Neya’ to kick off Kol film festival

KOLKATA: The 1963 Uttam Kumar-Tanuja starrer ‘Deya Neya’ will be screened as the opening film of the 29th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) on December 5.
At an event on Wednesday attended by the festival’s officials, film-makers, politicians and bureaucrats, including Indranil Sen, Goutam Ghose, Raj Chakraborty, Arindam Sil, Birbaha Hansda, Santanu Basu, Mimi Chakraborty, Chiranjeet Chakraborty, June Malia, Haranath Chakraborty, Sudeshna Roy and Soham Chakraborty, KIFF advisor and minister Aroop Biswas announced that the festival will also witness the screening of films using the 35mm projector at the Radha Studio and use of multiplexes as venues.
“KIFF’s title song, written by Srijato and composed by Indraadip Dasgupta, has been conceived by chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Arijit Singh has lent his voice to the composition,” said minister and co-chief advisor of KIFF Indranil Sen.
‘Deya Neya’ will be screened at Netaji Indoor Stadium after the inaugural function attended by Kamal Haasan, Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Sourav Ganguly, Mahesh Bh-att, Shatrughan Sinha and Sonakshi Sinha, among others. Actor Aditi Rao Hydari will attend the closing ceremony.
A competitive Bengali film segment carrying a Rs 7.5 lakh prize has been introduced this year, said actor and MLA Chiranjeet Chakraborty. “A new category called ‘PR and social media’ has been introduced to reach out to everyone interested in movies across the globe. Let’s not forget that KIFF has the highest prize money. The total prize to be given collectively this year will cross Rs 1 crore. Russian master Pavel Lungin is the chairperson of the international jury. From India, we have director Tigmanshu Dhulia on the jury,” said Sil, who is chairing three KIFF sub-committees and is a member of KIFF’S apex advisory committee.
“Films from 39 countries will be screened. As many as 1,590 films were submitted for this edition, with 72 features and 50 short and documentary nominations in the competition categories. The non-competition categories will see 97 screenings,” said KIFF chairman Raj Chakraborty.
The Satyajit Ray Memorial lecture will be delivered by Laurence Kardish. This edition of KIFF will pay centenary tribute to Lindsay Anderson, Richard Attenborough, Charlton Heston, Ousmane Sembene, Mrinal Sen, Dev Anand, Mukesh and Shailendra. Homage will be paid to Gina Lollobrigida, Carlos Saura, Derek Malcolm, Soumendu Ray and Dariush Mehrjui.
Since Spain is the focus country of the festival, six contemporary Spanish films are also on the list. Australia has been selected as the festival’s ‘Special Focus’ with 15 films selected for screening in three categories.