Amitabh Bachchan classics to be screened at France’s Festival des 3 Continents

Legendary Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan is going to be featured in the upcoming Three Continents Festival (Festival des 3 Continents) in France under a retrospective segment in honour of the superstar, titled "Amitabh Bachchan, Big B Forever".

The 45th edition of France's Three Continents Festival has set a film retrospective that will showcase nine films from the 1970s and 1980s starring the legendary actor, the organisers said on Monday. The film festival is scheduled to take place in Nantes from November 24 to December 3, accompanied by the presence of the actor's daughter, Shweta Bachchan.

Big B's classic popular films like "Trishul", "Amar Akbar Anthony", "Satte Pe Satta", "Sholay", "Don", "Kabhi Kabhie", "Deewaar", "Kaala Patthar", and "Abhimaan" will be screened at the festival, in partnership with the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) and with the support of the French Embassy in India.

Amitabh Bachchan said he is pleased to hear that FHF is co-presenting a selection of nine of his early films at the Three Continents Festival, "one of the oldest and most reputed film festivals."

"Many of these films gave me an opportunity to play a diverse range of characters and work with some of the most significant filmmakers of the time, including Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, and Ramesh Sippy," said the veteran actor.

"I hope that the festival audience will enjoy the selection of films that continue to give so much joy to viewers even half a century after they were made. Even though I will not be there in person, I am delighted that my daughter Shweta will be in Nantes to represent me at the festival," the 81-year-old star conveyed in a statement.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director, FHF, said the foundation is proud to have its name associated with the "Amitabh Bachchan, Big B Forever" retrospective. On Bachchan's 80th birthday last year, the Mumbai-based organisation also hosted a four-day national event, "Bachchan Back To The Beginning".

"We had presented an eclectic selection of Indian classics in the Indian Autumn stream of the festival last year and saw an enthusiastic response to the films from the festival audience. We would like to thank Jerome Baron, the artistic director of the festival for giving us another opportunity this year to showcase nine Amitabh Bachchan films spanning a period from 1973 to 1982 when Mr Bachchan was at the peak of his career, at the festival this year," Dungarpur said.

Jerome Baron, artistic director of Three Continents Festival, said the film gala finds its inspiration by combining curiosity for contemporary cinema with the classics.

"And Amitabh Bachchan is precisely, as he continues a career that began fifty years ago, the living and iconic embodiment of a link between the past and present of popular Hindi cinema. He is an on-screen unique performer and what no other actor has ever been, including in the history of European cinema," Baron added.

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Three Continents Festival will also host the world premiere of "The Real Superstar", a 68-minute experimental documentary on Amitabh Bachchan by French filmmaker Cedric Dupire.