#KIFF is a celebration for hundreds of film enthusiasts, who wait to watch world cinema: Raj Chakrabarty

After much deliberation, it has been decided that the 27th

Kolkata International Film Festival

will kickstart from April 25. While the preparations are underway, festival chairman

Raj Chakrabarty

spoke to us about the plans and enthusiasm of his team.


“Due to the third wave of Covid, we had to postpone the festival this year from January 7 to April 25. The festival is an important component in the cultural calendar of Kolkata and I am delighted that we are hosting it,” Raj told us, adding, “It is a celebration for hundreds of film enthusiasts, who wait to watch world cinema. Besides, our team members diligently watch and select films and do all the backend work to make this festival a success. The fact that we can host the festival i means a lot to them.”


The pandemic has been interrupting the festival schedule for the last two years. In 2020, the festival was postponed from November to January 2021. The third wave of Covid 19 pushed the festival further, from January to April. A total of 162 (feature, short and documentary) films will be screened at the festival in the competition and non-competition sections. A total of 11 films will compete in the International Competition: Innovation in Moving Images, 10 in Competition on Indian Language's Films and eight films will compete in the Asian Select (NETPAC Award) category.


“We have lost a number of artistes from the fraternity this year — locally, nationally and globally. We will pay tribute to them. Besides, there will be a centenary tribute to Satyajit Ray,

Chidananda Dasgupta

and Miklós Jancsó. We will screen 17 of Ray’s films, two of Chidananda Dasgupta’s films and one of Miklós Jancsó’s films. Moreover, there will be screenings of films of Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Dilip Kumar, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Swatilekha Sengupta, Sumitra Bhave, and others. We have also selected films that highlight the music of Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Lata Mangeshkar and Bappi Lahiri. We lost actor Abhishek Chatterjee recently and one of his films will also be screened at the festival,” Raj informed.


Like every year, there will be exhibitions (on Satyajit

Ray

, Lata Mangeshkar, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Bappi Lahiri and Dilip Kumar), seminars and adda sessions during the course of the festival.