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City film fest scales Great Wall, gets films from dragon land

By Mrs Gupta, Section Sports & Fun
Posted on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 04:02:05 AM EST

From ideology to economics to movies now. The Marxists in Bengal are opening the door for Chinese films to be screened for the first time in this year’s Kolkata Film Festival 11 years since the festival’s inception.

An official of the Department of Information and Culture said a package of eight Chinese films would be screened at the festival, beginning on November 10. Some filmmakers and actors from China would also come here along with films from the country.

The Information and Culture department is headed by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. In all, 225 films would be shown in the seven-day film festival, keenly awaited by the city’s film connoisseurs.

The festival will also break from two other practices followed for the last six years. First, instead of the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi would inaugurate the festival.

Second, there will be no ‘thali girl’ during the inauguration this time. A common feature of the inaugural programmes so far, actors like Vidya Balan, Rani Mukherjee, Kankona Sen Sharma and Debashree Roy had played the part of ‘thali girls’ earlier.

Another feature of this year’s festival is the beefed-up presence of films from last year’s 40 to 52 this time. Ninety guests from abroad would come here to participate in the festival.

The increase in participation from foreign countries is being seen as the increasing popularity of Kolkata film festival outside India’s shores.

Incidentally, though the state government tried to rope in Bollywood diva Rekha, the invitation is yet to get any confirmation. ‘‘Filmmaker Gautam Ghose has been trying to get a consent from the actress but no confirmation has been received from her yet,’’ the official said.

Meanwhile, Nandan director Neelanjan Chatterjee, a key official involved with the festival, said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would address the media on November 4 about the film festival.

Source- The Indian Express, Dated, October-31,2006

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