IFFI kickstarts festival with enthralling cultural performances to celebrate joy of cinema

Goa: Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar, along with southern cinema actor Sudeep inaugurated the 51st edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). The country’s largest and oldest International film festival praised the resilience of mankind to have come up with a vaccine for Covid-19 just a year after positive cases were reported in January 2020.

Prakash Javedkar also announced that on the occasion of 100th birth anniversary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, India and Bangladesh are together making a film titled ‘Bangabandhu’.

The Opening Ceremony of Asia’s oldest and India’s biggest film festival was hosted by actor, author and film-producer Tisca Chopra and became further illuminated by the presence of eminent film-maker Priyadarshan Nair and noted actor Sudeep who has been the Chief Guest, among other celebrated film personalities.

Addressing the attendees, Shri Sudeep, also known as Kichha Sudeep said, “Let Cinema be the new pandemic”

“Cinema is one fraternity that, from one seat, takes you all around the world, gets you the knowledge, gets you closer to the culture of every fraternity across the world,” he added.

A trailer of the festival’s opening film ‘Another Round’ by Danish film-maker Thomas Vinterberg was also played in the opening ceremony.

Due to the current COVID-19 scenario, many Bollywood celebrities could not attend the function physically. Their video messages brought a feel of their virtual presence to the ceremony.