Amitabh Bachchan’s 80th birthday will be celebrated by a film festival, which the Film Heritage Foundation announced on Friday. As part of the festival, films starring the megastar will be shown in 17 cities across the nation. In collaboration with the top multiplex chain PVR Cinemas, the non-profit organisation founded by director and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur has curated a collection of 11 blockbuster movies, including “Don,” “Kaala Patthar,” and “Kaalia.”
The four-day day event, titled ‘Bachchan Back To The Beginning’, will open on October 8 and close on October 11, the star’s birthday. The gala will cover 172 showcases and 30 screens across 22 cinema halls all over India.
Bachchan stated that he never imagined a day when all of these movies from his early career would return to theatres. The Film Heritage Foundation and PVR’s initiative to highlight not only my work but also that of the directors, coworkers, and technicians from the era who made these films possible is remarkable.
“It brings back an era that is gone, but not forgotten. This is why saving India’s film heritage is so important. I hope that this is just the beginning of many festivals that will celebrate landmark films of Indian cinema back on the big screen,” the 79-year-old actor said in a statement.
Several of the legendary actor’s movies will be shown in theatres in cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Raipur, Kanpur, Kolhapur, Indore, and Bachchan’s hometown Prayagraj, according to a press release from the Film Heritage Foundation.
Other titles to be screened as part of the festival are “Kabhie Kabhie”, “Amar Akbar Anthony”, “Namak Halaal”, “Abhimaan”, “Deewar”, “Mili”, “Satte Pe Satta”, and “Chupke Chupke”
Dungarpur, director of Film Heritage Foundation, said the festival aims to provide audiences with a cinematic experience of Bachchan’s movies. “Growing up, I was the biggest Amitabh Bachchan fan. I am so glad that the Film Heritage Foundation is paying tribute to Mr Bachchan on his 80th birthday with the first-of-its-kind country-wide four-day festival.
“It has been a mammoth task putting together the best of his early films that launched him as a superstar and to showcase these films so that audiences across the country can enjoy the films the way they were originally screened on the big screen,” added Dungarpur.
PVR Cinemas has a movie pass for Rs 400 that can be ordered online through the PVR App and website as a special perk for his fans. The pass may be used at any of the 22 theatres where the films are playing on all days. Ticket prices for single movies would be Rs 80, according to the press release.
Dungarpur said he was grateful that PVR Cinemas had agreed to show the veteran actor’s classic movies. Additionally, he thanked Siddharth Roy Kapur, the film producer, for his help in organising the festival and mounting an exhibition of Amitabh Bachchan’s memorabilia at a PVR theatre in Juhu, a suburb of Mumbai. S M M Ausaja is a film historian, author, and archivist who oversaw the exhibition’s curation.
It will entail a diverse and carefully curated collection of memorabilia, including rare vintage posters, unseen shooting stills from the superstar’s career, commissioned artworks, photographs, LP jackets, magazine covers, a giant seven-feet standee and the original “Shahenshah” costume.
Ajay Bijli, Chairman & Managing Director, PVR Ltd, expressed his company’s joy at working with the Film Heritage Foundation on this festival. Bijli exclaimed, “We are so delighted that for the first time ever we are able to stage a festival of this kind of Mr. Bachchan’s films throughout the nation to celebrate his work at the scale that is befitting the biggest icon of Indian cinema.