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Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the 29th Kolkata International Film Festival 2023 (KIFF) at the Netaji indoor stadium in Kolkata on December 5.
Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Sonakshi Sinha, Mahesh Bhatt and Sourav Ganguly were the guests of honour. Others who attended the ceremony included film-makers Sandip Ray and Anjan Dutt.
The star guests grooved to the festival's theme song along with Mamata Banerjee.
Salman, like always, stole everyone's attention with his Dabangg hook step.
"Kolkata, for me, is not just a city," Anil Kapoor told the audience. "It's a sensory experience. A journey and a treasure trove of memories that have shaped my career and love for cinema."
He also spoke about Satyajit Ray's film Nayak (1966), starring Uttam Kumar. "Uttam Kumar is a mahanayak," he said.
Salman compared Mamata Banerjee's Kolkata home to his house in Galaxy Apartments in Mumbai and explained why he felt jealous of her small house.
"When I was invited by Didi to her house, my only thing was, 'I really want to see if her house is actually that small.' Is it smaller than my house or not? I am jealous that her house is actually smaller than mine," he said.
"When Shatrusaab (Shatrughan Sinha) comes to my house, he has a big problem that he doesn't find space to sit. I have one room, one small kitchen and a bedroom, which is very important because we can't sleep while standing," Salman said.
"I am jealous of the fact that how can somebody (Mamata Banerjee), who is in such a position, have a house that is smaller than mine. I don't wish for a smaller house but she has given me a big complex. It only shows how simple people are and we don't need that much," Salman added.
Mamatadi explained that Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan could not be present at the inaugural ceremony because they were attending the premiere of the Netflix film The Archies, which will launch the showbiz careers of AB's grandson Agastya Nanda and SRK's daughter Suhana Khan.
KIFF 2023 will showcase 219 films from 39 countries across 23 venues in Kolkata. Among them, 72 are feature films, 50 are short films and documentaries. It will run till December 12.
The Kolkata Film Festival was organised for the first time in 1995 but was opened to the public in 2011.
