By vineeta kumar | Updated: November 21, 2019 9:01 AM IST
The 50th edition of IFFI (International Film Festival of India) kick-started in Goa in the presence of two of the biggest forces of Indian cinema - Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth. The latter was conferred with the Icon of the Golden Jubilee Award. The festival celebrated the contribution of Bachchan in the Hindi film industry with the screening of a retrospective of his films.
Both Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan expressed their gratitude towards the audience and recalled their time working in prominent films. The inaugural session, compèred by well-known director Karan Johar, began with a tribute to Goa's stalwart politician the late Manohar Parrikar who hosted the first IFFI in Goa.
The festival was also attended by Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar who talked about having a single-window clearance for films in the country. At the inaugural ceremony, Javadekar described cinema as India's 'soft power' while announcing the setting up of a single-window clearance system for processing of permissions for film shoots.
Twenty-six feature films and 15 non-feature films will be screened as part of the Indian panorama section at the IFFI. The nine-day long IFFI is considered to be one of the largest international film festivals in Asia, during which nearly 200 films from 76 countries will be screened for a more than 7,000 odd strong contingent of delegates.