The 11th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) inaugurated

The 11th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF)was  inaugurated with the presentation of Life Time Achievement Awards to  Actors Jeetendra Kapoor and Ramesh Deo at the City Pride in Kothrud. Several prominent film personalities, including actors Mohan Agashe, Mukta Barve, director and producer Subhash Ghai, sound designer Resul Pookutty and Jabbar Patel, director of PIFF were present. State minister for cultural affairs, Sanjay Deotale, state forest minister, Patangrao Kadam and  Prakash Javadekar were also at the festival.PIFF organisers also presented the S D Burman Sound of music award to Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. Clips from films of the four stalwarts were shown before each one was felicitated.Israeli film Hayuta and Berl by Amir Manor was screened during the inagural function.Seven Marathi films will vie for the state government's 'Sant Tukaram' trophy while 13 films will be competing in the world cinema category. Besides 80 contemporary films from more than 50 countries, a retrospective segment, which will feature films by renowned Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, French director Claude Chabrol as well as popular films of Indian actor Smita Patil, will also be screened.This year, PIFF will present milestone feature films in the history of Indian cinema to mark the centenary of Indian films. The screenings are scheduled in seven theatres across the city, including all multiplexes of City Pride, E-Square, National Film Archive of India and PVR - Ahmednagar road.