LIFFI 2021 planned as tribute to filmmaker Shakti Samanta

The sixth edition of the Lonavala International Film Festival India (LIFFI) will be held over three weekends from 24 September till 10 October. The theme of the festival this year is Shakti Samanta and LIFFI will be showcasing some of the popular films directed by the late filmmaker. The films will be screened virtually through the Plexigo app.

The opening weekend of the festival will see Shammi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore's An Evening In Paris (1967) and Kashmir Ki Kali (1964) being screened, followed by Chinatown (1962), starring Kapoor and Shakila.

This will be followed by the centrepiece weekend, which will showcase the Rajesh Khanna- and Sharmila Tagore-starrers Aradhana (1969) and Amar Prem (1972) along with Kati Patang (1971), starring Asha Parekh with Khanna.

The closing weekend will see the films Barsaat Ki Ek Raat (1981), starring Amitabh Bachchan, Rakhee, Amjad Khan and Utpal Dutt, and Amanush (1974), starring Tagore and Uttam Kumar. The closing event of the festival is Puncham Unplugged.

The festival shared a post on Twitter about the opening weekend.

LIFFI 2021 has been curated by actor, producer and director Viveck Vaswani, who is also dean of the Pearl Academy. Besides the screening of films, LIFFI will be organizing a series of panel discussions with Ashim Samanta, son of Shakti Samanta, and Pooja Desai, granddaughter of Shammi Kapoor, sharing memories and anecdotes.

The other panellists include writer-director Jyotin Goel; RJ Divya Solgama, who is known as a Hindi film encyclopaedia; dancer, choreographer and actor Sandip Soparrkar; and music composer, writer and producer Tushar Bhatia.