Raj and his fresh KIFF team gear up to make the fest a success

Raj Chakrabarty

, who tested COVID-19

positive

on Monday, has totally isolated himself at home and is coordinating the preparations for the upcoming

26th Kolkata International Film Festival

, scheduled to begin from November 5, over phone and through emails.
“We still don’t know how to go about the festival because of the

pandemic

. But KIIF is definitely going to happen. This year Abir Chatterjee, Paoli,

Indradeep Das Gupta

, Satrajit Sen, Birsa Dasgupta, Arindam Dey and many more are part of the festival core committee. I felt those who love cinema should be part of this prestigious festival, as their inputs will help make it better. We have started watching films too. Some members, who didn’t participate actively in the festival, are not part of it any more. Instead, new members have come on board,” Raj told us.
Speaking to us about his entry into the festival core committee, Abir said, “It is an honor but a huge responsibility at the same time. For me, it will be a learning experience too, as I will get to watch so many brilliant films from all over the world. Now we are discussing everything over the phone, but it would have been better if we could have done it sitting face to face.”

Satrajit Sen was quite surprised to get a message from Raj a few days back, conveying that he had been unanimously nominated to be a part of the jury for the Indian Languages Films competition section in this year’s KIFF. “It feels nice to have been considered for this position. I have already watched a few great films and expect to watch more in the coming days,” he said. To this Birsa added, “I have grown up watching masterpieces at KIFF. That has been my school as I was never a part of any film school. I am shooting now, so I will start watching the films soon.”