''Gandhi's'' Ben Kingsley guest of honour at IFFI

Sir Ben Kingsley, who has won Best Actor Academy Award for his key role in Richard Attenborough's film 'Gandhi', will be the guest of honour in the 40th edition of the 11-day International Film Festival of India (IFFI) commencing here from November 23.

This was decided by the festival's governing council in a meeting held here last evening, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and Chief Secretary Sanjay Srivastava.

The meeting had also reviewed the arrangements being made for the smooth conduct of the festival within Rs 6 crore scheduled budget. The Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) is the nodal agency of the State government hosting the event since 2004.

The authorities in collaboration with the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) is yet to finalise the film personality for inauguration of the event, for which Goa has become the permanent venue since 2004.

Indications are that the authorities may approach the south Indian matinee idol Rajanikant for the purpose, even as efforts are underway to ensure that the festival would be conducted on par with international standards like that of Cannes film festival.

Meanwhile, the festival jury members had selected Konkani film 'Poltodcho Munis' by Laxmikant Shetgaonkar as the opening feature film in the Indian Panorama section of the IFFI.

The Indian Panorama will have 26 feature films, six of which are Bengali and 18 non-feature films. The non-feature film section opens with 'In for Motion' (English) of Anirban Datta.

-- (UNI) -- 04BY1.xml

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