Big B gives IFFI show a miss

While the Directorate of Film Festivals may have managed to rope in Shahrukh Khan to open the International Film Festival of India, in Goa...

While the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) may have managed to rope in Shahrukh Khan to open the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, that was the end of star-studded evenings at the event. As was being speculated, Amitabh Bachchan stayed away from IFFI yet again even as Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear, starring Big B, was screened at the festival on Friday.

With Bachchan’s equation with the Congress soared, it was expected that he would miss the event. DFF officials had earlier told The Indian Express that “Bachchan was free to come if he liked. Actors and directors of all movies screened in the festivals are automatically invitees to the event. No special invites are sent to them and so no special invitations were sent to Mr Bachchan as well.”

DFF, however, only got confirmation on Thursday evening that Bachchan would not be coming for the premier of The Last Lear in which he plays the lead role. Bachchan took the lead at the Toronto International Film Festival where the world premier of the film was held in September. Ghosh’s first English language film also stars Preity Zinta and Arjun Rampal who also did not make it for the premier. Mithun Chakraborty who was expected to make an appearance for the screening of Ek Nadir Galpo in which he plays a lead role also gave the event a miss.

Starring Amitabh Bachchan and Preity Zinta in the lead, The Last Lear is a story of Harry—65-year-old recluse, eccentric, a passionate Shakespearean stage actor—and his relationship with a new age director, an upcoming actor and a magnificent role in a film that gradually engages him completely.