IFFI 2018: Masterclasses and in-conversations by Bollywood bigwigs

Prasoon Joshi, Meghna Gulzar, David Dhawan and Shoojit Sircar are among some of the Bollywood personalities who will attend the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) as part of the movie gala's Masterclasses and In-Conversations sessions.

This year IFFI will celebrate the legacy of Ingmar Bergman through 'Wild at Heart Master in His Craft: Retrospective section of Ingmar Bergman' as 2018 marks the 100-year anniversary of the legendary Swedish filmmaker's birth.

The In-Conversation session will be moderated by Sunit Tandon and feature Mikael Timm, Jannike Ahlund and Ulrika.

While lyricist-CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi will take a masterclass exploring the art of writing songs 'Lyrical Imagination Unleashed', singer Arijit Singh will speak about 'Hitting the Right Notes' at the movie extravaganza.

The singer is also debuting as a film director at IFFI 2018 with his film "Sa".

Women directors such as Meghna Gulzar, Leena Yadav and Gauri Shinde will take centrestage as they talk about their work.

Sessions with Boney Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor and Jhanvi Kapoor; David Dhawan and Varun Dhawan; Venkatesh, Suresh Babu and Rana Daggubati; Anil Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor, and Sriram Raghavan with Sridhar Raghavan will give an insight into the families of the diverse film industry.

This year's Life Time Achievement award recipient, Dan Wolman from Israel, will also take a Masterclass on the art of filmmaking.

Tunisian Ambassador-filmmaker Nacer Khemir will introduce the audiences to his country's cinema, while veteran director Ramesh Sippy will sit down for a tete-a-tete with Dipendra Manocha and Rumi Seth.

Names such as Rahul Bose, Pankaj Tripathi, Rajshri Deshpande, Divya Dutta, Nila Madhab Panda, Kriti Sanon, Chitrangada Singh, Jim Sarbh, Diana Penty and Rakul Preet Singh will also be part of the In-Conversation series.

Film critics Anupama Chopra, Rajeev Masand, Komal Nahata, Bhawana Somaaya will engage in a conversation with director Shaad Ali in an In-Conversation session titled, 'Thinning lines between critically acclaimed and commercially viable cinema'.

The movie extravaganza will see more participation from filmmakers from the southern part of the country with filmmakers and analysts of the entertainment trade from the US in a session titled, 'Roundtable Business Conference'.

IFFI, to be held from November 20 to 28 in Goa, will be showcasing 212 films this year and Israel is the country of focus.