Centenary Award for Rajinikanth at IFFI

Superstar Rajinikanth will be conferred with the Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year during the ten-day International Film Festival of India starting in Goa on November 20.

The focus country for this year’s festival is China with India being keen on tapping the “vast” Chinese entertainment market for its films.

While the Chinese films will be screened during the festival, a lifetime achievement award will be conferred on Chinese filmmaker Wong Kar Wai.Veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan will inaugurate the festival as chief guest.

“Quality of Chinese films is better than those of Hollywood. China has vast market. There are about 50,000 cinema halls in China while in India we have five to 10,000 cinema halls. We already have a cooperation treaty with China. India will gain from Chinese market, if we make films together,” Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who made minister of state for the information and broadcasting in the cabinet reshuffle, told reporters.

A working group from China, comprising those from film industry of the country, will participate in the festival during which they will also have interaction with the Indian filmmakers to explore how the two countries can collaborate to produce films together.
“We hope to collaborate on films and release our movies in the Chinese market,” he said.