It seems the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) has a ‘special’ connection with one of the world’s greatest filmmakers,
Satyajit Ray. During the last edition of the festival in 2019, the official website had replaced Ray’s image with that of Gulzar in the section about his 1990 Bengali film
Ganashatru.
And this year, the description of his Soumitra Chatterjee and Feluda classic,
Sonar Kella, had no mention of Feluda or Topshe.
Instead, it was all about a cop called Chulbul Pandey. Rings a bell? Yes, the description was apparently that of the Salman Khan-Sonakshi Sinha starrer
Dabangg. And what's more, even the producers included Arbaaz Khan and Malaika Arora! No wonder it led to some scathing reactions on social media.
Filmmaker
Srijit Mukherji was among many who tweeted about the goof-up.
Late last evening, the festival committee issued an apology on its Twitter handle: “We would like to apologise for the incorrect information of the film ‘Sonar Kella’ mentioned in the IFFI Film Guide. It was inadvertent and the same has been duly rectified. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.”