Raj Chakravorty appointed KIFF chairman

Bengali film director Raj Chakravorty has been appointed the chairman of the 25th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF).

Chakravorty replaces Bengali film superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee as the new chairman of KIFF, an Information and Cultural Affairs department notification said on Friday evening.

West Bengal minister of state for Cultural Affairs Indranil Sen will be the co-chairman of the KIFF and Youth Affairs minister Aroop Biswas the chief advisor of the council, the notification said.

"An Advisory Committee will steer, render necessary advice and guidance for the entire event," it said.

The committee is headed by KIFF chairman.

The 10-member apex advisory committee include veteran actress-director Aparna Sen, Goutam Ghosh, Sandip Ray, Kaushik Ganguly, Srijit Mukherji, Arindam Sil, Madhabi Mukhopadhyay, Sabitri Chattopadhyay , Ranjit Mallick and Prosenjit Chatterjee, it said.

Goutam Ghosh, who is the chairman of the Film Selection Committee of 25th KIFF, said there will be a section on great cameramen in the festival.

"This is one of the sections and my favourite. Never done before," he told PTI.

He said members of the film selection committee will individually see different entries as one single person can't see all the films.

The entire panel will together see the shortlisted films in the final round and decide which one will be included and which one to be omitted in the festival screening, he explained.

The film selection committee consists of directors Kaushik Ganguly, Sandip Ray, Srijit Mukherji, Atanu Ghosh, Moinak Bhowmik, actors Ritwik Chakraborty, Parambrata Chatterjee, Churni Ganguly, Papia Adhikary among others.

The 25th KIFF will be held from November 8 to November 15.