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The 9-day long 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa came to an end on Monday.
The closing ceremony at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium near Panaji featured actor Akshay Kumar, south superstar Chiranjeevi, veteran screen legend Asha Parekh and Union Minister Anurag Thakur, among others. Akshay said, "India is on course to becoming a superpower. The maximum number of films are made in India and our films are produced in most languages. Thank you to IFFI, for the way they have taken our movies to a global audience." Actor Ayushmann Khurrana, who also graced the closing ceremony, told ANI, "The IFFI is always a lot of fun. I think Goa blends perfectly with entertainment as you feel so good. The vibe here is great." The 'Dream Girl' actor is currently busy promoting his upcoming quirky thriller 'An Action Hero'. Talking about his film, Ayushmann told ANI, "'An Action Hero is a very very special film for me. It's kind of a reinvention for me because I am dabbling in this (action) genre for the first time. It's hitting the theatres on December 2 and I am very excited." IFFI was first held in 1952 and has since been held annually to provide a common platform for the best cinema at an international level and project the excellence of film art. It is organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals in Asia, an organisation under the Union ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Over the course of the 9-day festival, 280 films from 79 countries were screened. These included 25 feature films and 20 non-feature films from India in the 'Indian Panorama' section while 183 films were part of international programming. The selected films for the 'Indian Panorama' section, with an aim for promoting film art, will also be cued in for non-profit screening at international film festivals in India and abroad, Indian Film Weeks held under Bilateral Cultural Exchange Programmes and Specialized Indian Film Festivals outside cultural exchange protocols, as well as special Indian Panorama festivals in India. The 'Indian Panorama' was introduced in 1978, under the IFFI umbrella, to promote Indian films along with the country's rich culture and heritage with the help of cinematic art. Since its inception, the 'Indian Panorama' has been devoted to showcasing the best of Indian cinema. (ANI)
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