Kolkata International Film Festival takes off

The 24th Kolkata International Film Festival was inaugurated on November 10 through a grand celebration at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium in Kolkata. Amongst an audience of nearly 26,000 people, the opening ceremony was graced by the presence of the Honourable Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee along with nearly a hundred of the biggest names in Bollywood and Tollywood including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Kajol, Parineeti Chopra, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Dev, Soham, and international guests from 70 countries. Attending as special guest, Amitabh Bachchan gave a speech at the ceremony during which he recited a few lines from Rabindranath Tagore's poem Amar Sonar Bangla Ami Tomay Bhalobashi.