The closing ceremony of the 51st edition of the International Film Festival of India was held in the Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Stadium in Goa on Sunday.
The glittering ceremony was attended by Goa governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, MoS Babul Supriyo, Goa CM Pramod Sawant I and B secretary Amit Khare among others. Each of the dignitaries present expressed happiness at the successful holding of the film festival.
Another yesteryear actor who was felicitated was Biswajeet Chatterjee who was named IFFI”s “Personality of the year’.
Yesteryear actress Zeenat Aman was felicitated as was Bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kishen for their contribution to films.
Festival Director Chaitanya Prasad who has been credited with making the concept of a hybrid festival a reality thanked everyone for their support.
A packed auditorium also watched as video messages from film greats from across the world including megastar amitabh Bachchan. The day also saw the announcement of awards in various categories.
Superstar of the century, Amitabh Bachchan has greeted the Government on holding of the India International Film Festival of India.
He hailed Government’s efforts to hold the event amidthe pandemic. In his video message Amitabh Bachchan said, In the last one year the world experienced something which is not easy to forget. In view of covid pandemic, world stopped functioning, big events cancelled and all programmes are being held virtually.
I was thinking when situation will come back to normal and meetings start. All this was possible when our govt decided to hold IFFI.
Converting challenges into success is what our pm has always been saying and see IFFI is the biggest testimony to this.
This time, IFFI was held in a hybrid format. That means if you are unable to attend IFFI after reaching goa, then you can take part virtually.
At a time, when we all were sitting at home, the IFFI organisers made preparations and presented world’s best cinema.
Films from 60 countries came. The biggest attraction was cinema from across the country in different languages that were selected in Indian Panorama.
I thank all the people behind making IFFI successful. I thank the government for keeping alive the cinema in such adverse situation.