Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kamal Haasan Inaugurate 19th Kolkata International Film Festival

Paying tribute to 100 years of Indian cinema, the 19th edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) was kicked off on Sunday (November 10) in vintage musical style by superstars Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Kamal Haasan.

Thousands of film lovers gathered to attend the glittering ceremony at the Netaji Indoor Stadium where they were left mesmerised by the presence of Amitabh Bachchan, his actor-wife Jaya, actors Shah Rukh Khan and Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan.

The evening started off with a colourful dance titled 'Parampara' by Sukalyann D Entourage celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema. The charm and appeal of Indian cinema was xpressed through classic songs like 'Piya milan ko jaana', 'Yaari hai imaan mera', 'Chin chin chu' and 'Kabhi alvida na kehna' as the audience went down memory lane.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was seated in between Bachchan and Shah Rukh on the dais.

Among others, Bollywood actress Sharmila Tagore, directors

Madhur Bhandarkar and Shoojit Sarkar, National Award-winning Malayali filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, would also be present at the later stages of the festival.

Late filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh's unreleased film 'Taak Jhaank' (Sunglass) will be screened for the first time as the

Inaugural film for which a giant screen will be put up at the indoor stadium.

To pay tribute to the director who passed away in May, eight of his films including 'Unishe April', 'Dahan', 'The Last Lear' and 'Chitrangada' would be screened at the KIFF.

In 13 venues including the Nandan-Rabindra Sadan complex, Inox City Centre 1 and Star Theatre, altogether 189 films would be shown in the eight-day-long film carnival.

Adding an international touch to KIFF would be 24 delegates from abroad led by Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai who will also hold a masterclass for film students.

The focus this year would be on Southeast Asian films.

A new addition to this year's KIFF is the section 'Shades of Black and White' where contemporary black and white films would be shown.

A retrospective of Adoor Gopalakrishnan starting with 'Kodiyettam' from the seventies to the 2008 film 'Oru Pennum Randaanum' would be shown.

Filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh Passes Away

The National award winning director suffered a massive cardiac arrest this morning and passed away at his residence in Kolkata.

Film industry woke up to a shocking news today. Acclaimed Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh (49) passed away due to a major cardiac arrest at 7.30 am this morning at his residence in Kolkata.

In his 19-year long career, Ghosh directed several successful films that went on to win multiple National Awards. Some of his more acclaimed films include Unishe April, Raincoat and Utsab among others.

Bollywood took to Twitter to announce their shock at this sad news. Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar Tweeted, “I had met Ritu a couple of time, he was a very warm & humorous person. He most definitely will be missed. I m speechless & shocked to know that talented filmmaker Rituparna Ghosh has expired.”

While actor Vivek Vaswani said, “RIP rituporno ghosh! Too early, and just when your seeds for a new Bengali cinema were bearing ripe fruits!”

Watch: Rituparno Ghosh's Chitrangada- The Story Of A Dancer