Amitabh Bachchan the biggest crowdpuller at Kolkata film fest

Kolkata: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who had mesmerised Kolkatans with his Bengali at the inauguration of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) last week, continues to be its biggest crowd puller. A select bouquet of seven of his most memorable films are being screened at the eight-day festival which ends on Saturday. Officials said all the shows are going houseful with tickets being sold out days in advance. 26-year-old techie Goutam Basak, who stood in a queue at the state-run auditorium Nandan to buy tickets of the Yash Chopra directed 1975 classic film `Deewar` said it is probably the only time he will get to watch his favourite film on the big screen. "The new releases can be seen in theatres but not the old ones. This was a golden opportunity for me to watch it on the big screen rather than on DVD," he said. Right from the 1969 film `Saat Hindustani`, one of Bachchan`s earliest films, to more recent hits like `Black` and `Chini Kum`, are being shown. Others include Hrishikesh Mukherjee directed `Abhimaan` and Sudhendu Roy`s 1973 film `Saudagar`. Fondly called `Babu Moshai`, as his character was called by Rajesh Khanna in `Anand`, Bachchan had struck a chord with the city while inaugurating KIFF last Saturday. He had begun his speech by saying "Ami Banglay bolchi asa kori apni bhujte parben (I am speaking in Bengali. Hope you will understand)" amidst loud applause. PTI