PANJIM: The 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) concluded with a star-studded closing ceremony and felicitation of megastar Amitabh Bachchan with the Indian Film Personality of the Year Award.
The festival saw the who’s who of Bollywood including Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Akshay Kumar, Sushant Rajput, Siddharth Malhotra and Bhoomi Pednekar amongst others attending.
Governor Mridula Sinha, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar were present at the ceremony which brought the curtains down to the nine day extravaganza.
The French film ‘120 Beats Per Minute’ received the Golden Peacock Award. The film is set in France in the 1990s and deals with homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic. Malayam film ‘Take-Off’ won the Special Jury Award. The film focuses on the rescue of Indian nurses trapped in Tikrit. The film’s female lead also won the Best Actor – Female Award. Canadian film maker Atom Egoyan was feted with the IFFI 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Siddharth Malhotra danced to the hit tracks of Amitabh Bachchan and paid tribute to the megastar’s 48 years of contribution to the field of cinema, singer and composer Papon added glitter with remarkable performance.
IFFI 2017 showcased 195 films from over 82 countries of which 10 were world premieres, 10 Asian and International premieres and over 64 Indian premieres. Pablo Cesar’s Indo-Argentine co-production ‘Thinking of Him’, centered on an episode in the life of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was screened as the closing film. Karan Johar, Sonali Bendre and child actress Zaira Wasim hosted the closing ceremony.
