Shah Rukh lights the ceremonial lamp, Kolkata International Film Festival gets off to a glitzy start

The city is all geared up for a one-week cinema carnival as Shah Rukh Khan inaugurated the 25th

Kolkata International Film Festival

in presence of stars from Bollywood, Bengali cinema and World cinema, at the Netaji Indoor stadium on Friday.

Flanked by veteran actress Rakhi Gulzar, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and this year’s ‘thali girl'’ Srabanti Chatterjee, the Bollywood superstar lit the ceremonial lamp amidst wild cheers. The event was anchored by Jisshu Sengupta and Parambrata Chatterjee.

German Oscar winning director Volker Schlondorff, ‘Sex Lies and Videotape’ actress Andie MacDowell, Slovak film director Dusan Hanak were also present on the dais, alongside Mahesh bhatt, and BCCI President and Bengal’s beloved dada Sourav Ganguly.

Also a galaxy of stars including Madhabi Mukherjee, Nusrat Jahan, Abir Chatterjee, Mimi Chakraborty, Shatabdi Roy and Dev besides noted directors Goutam Ghosh, Arindam Sil and Sandip Ray graced the occasion.

The vibrant program kick-started with a montage of history of cinema and a short promotional film on Bengal’s film locations. Nusrat Jahan presented the 25th Kolkata International Film Festival commemoration trophy to Shah Rukh Kahn.