IFFi - Latest News & Gossip
Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin and Zoya Akhtar’s true confessions at IFFI Goa
Cineswami managed to know some secrets of the Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara stars and director, at the 42nd International Film Festival of India in Goa
The secret is out. Abhay Deol and Zoya Akhtar have confessed that they don’t watch non-Bollywood films, that is, films made outside Mumbai in the other Indian states. Kalki Koechlin said that she’d watched a few Marathi films, but only when she was, in her own word, “dragged” to screenings by hubby Anurag Kashyap. The trio were on a panel at the just concluded Film Bazaar organised by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) that ran alongside the International Film Festival of India in Goa. Interestingly, though the discussion was about new trends in Indian cinema, the august panel spoke only about Bollywood. The trio were jolted out of their smug mutual back scratching when an intrepid and very polite member of the audience asked them the loaded question about whether they watched films in other Indian languages. Click here to read more1 Comment
MF Husain’s documentary film not screened at IFFI
Bowing to pressure from rightwing Hindu groups, organisers of the 42nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) deferred the screening of legendary artist MF Husain’s documentary. Speaking to reporters Sunday, IFFI director Shankar Mohan said the screening of Through the Eyes of a Painter was a homage by the film fraternity to the late artist. Mohan said the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) had told them that a case regarding the documentary was pending in court. “We do not want to do anything illegal, so we are taking a legal opinion,” he said. The documentary had won the Golden Bear prize at the Berlin film festival.
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Brazilian director Oscar Marron Filho passes away at IFFI Goa
In a tragic incident, Brazilian documentary director Oscar Marron Filho suffered a cardiac arrest during an interactive session Sunday afternoon and died later at a local hospital. IFFI director Shankar Mohan said that as a mark of respect for the Brazilian director, the film parties scheduled Sunday would be cancelled and the playing of loud music would be stopped. Filho, 56, whose film Mario Filho: A Creator of Crowds – based on famed Brazilian journalist and writer Mario Filho was screened as a part of a special package on soccer films – was speaking during Open Forum, an interactive session with delegates on Sunday when he suddenly suffered a heart attack. After a few minutes of chaos, the ailing Filho was rushed to the Goa Medical College and hospital located some distance from Panaji, where he succumbed. “We are suspending festivities for today. Two minutes’ silence will be observed at all theatres at 8pm today. His relatives have been informed,” Mohan said.
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Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Abhay Deol: Celeb spotting at IFFI Goa
Shahrukh Khan was his usual ebullient self, Madhuri Dixit rushed in and out, Jackie Shroff was mobbed while Abhay Deol was ignored, much to Cineswami’s amusement
This week Cineswami has undertaken another tedious and onerous task so that you, gentle reader, don’t have to. I took the trouble of coming to sunny seaside Goa and put up with the discomfort of staying in a 7 Star hotel so that I could bring vignettes from the 42nd International Film Festival of India and the accompanying Film Bazaar to you. Well, someone has to take a hit for the home side, right? And Cineswami’s sacrificial nature is a byword in some (very small) circles. Click here to read moreShahrukh Khan offers to strip in Goa!
Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan Wednesday turned an otherwise drab official function into a rib-tickling affair by offering to strip and reveal his bermudas on stage at the inauguration of the 42nd IFFI
Shahrukh Khan was the chief guest at the inauguration of the 11-day International Film Festival of India (IFFI). The actor was at his hilarious best and had Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni and Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat in splits by threatening to strip down to his beach wear, which he claimed he was wearing beneath his formal slacks. “I wanted to wear my bermudas, but then chose to wear my suit. But I am still wearing bermudas beneath. Do you want me to take my pants off,” he asked, leaving the 1,000 strong audience laughing their guts out. “The younger girls (referring to compere Tisca Chopra and actor Rituparna Sengupta) and Ambikaji are saying ‘take it off, take it off’!” Khan chided in banter, after being at the receiving end of Soni’s playful jibe at him in her introductory speech. Click here to read moreFreida Pinto’s ‘Trishna’ at IIFI
Hollywood-based Indian actor Freida Pinto-starrer Trishna will be screened Friday at the 42nd International Film Festival of Indian in Panaji. Trishna is about a woman whose life is destroyed by a combination of love and circumstances. Freida, along with director Michael Winterbottom, co-producers Anurag Kashyap and Sunil Bohra as well as composer Amit Trivedi, will attend the screening. The story is based on Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Set in contemporary Rajasthan, the film has Trishna (Freida) meeting a wealthy young British businessman Jay Singh (Riz Ahmed) who has come to India to work in his father’s hotel business. After an accident destroys her father’s jeep, Trishna goes to work for Jay, and they fall in love. But despite their feelings for each other, they cannot escape the conflicting pressures of a rural society which is changing rapidly through industrialisation, urbanisation and, above all, education. Trishna’s tragedy is that she is torn between the traditions of her family life and the dreams and ambitions that her education has given her. The film had its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and received rave reviews from critics. The film will have worldwide release in 2012. For the India release, it will be dubbed in eight languages.
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IFFI Goa: Jackie Shroff wants to make it better than Cannes
Bollywood actors and industry professionals should not see Goa merely as a holiday destination, but also participate in the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which is hosted in Panaji, said actor Jackie Shroff Wednesday. Speaking to reporters, the plain-speaking Shroff also said that he would urge his friends and colleagues in the industry to participate in IFFI more whole-heartedly. “People come here (Goa) for a holiday. They should also come here during IFFI,” Shroff said, after inaugurating the Raj Kapoor lounge for directors at the IFFI venue. “I am going to request people from the film industries in India, like Marathi, Tamil, Bengali also to come here for the festival…. People keep talking about Cannes, let’s make Goa better than all that,” Shroff said. The 42nd IFFI kicks off in Panaji on Wednesday. Shroff, a regular visitor to Goa for several decades now, said that it has changed over the years and advised the people and state government to ensure that development in the beach state is done in conformation with the environmental needs of the region.
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Rahul Khanna, Tisca Chopra to host 42nd IFFI opening ceremony in Goa
The 10-day extravaganza of the 42nd International Film Festival of India will start Wednesday and actress Tisca Chopra has tweeted that she will host the opening ceremony. “Off to Goa for IFFI – International Film Fest Of India, hosting the opening ceremony,” Tisca posted on microblogging site Twitter. Actor Rahul Khanna will co-host the opening ceremony with her. The festival, which will take place at Ravindra Bhavan auditorium in Margao, aims to be a one-stop-shop for cultural exchanges between Indian filmmakers and artists and cinema experts from several countries. Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan will inaugurate the festival. The guest list of the festival includes eminent French filmmaker Luc Besson, Hollywood actor Michelle Yeoh as well as Laurence Kardish, Dan Wolman, Raima Sen, Dino Morea and Prem Chopra.
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