Cinemas look forward to blockbuster weekend with Dilip Kumar fest

MUMBAI: Theatre chains PVR Cinemas and INOX are hopeful to have a busy weekend with the Film Heritage Foundation organising a two-day film festival to celebrate cine legend Dilip Kumar’s 100th birth anniversary on Sunday.

Organised by the not-for-profit organisation, the festival titled ‘Dilip Kumar Hero Of Heroes’ will be held on Saturday and Sunday.

During the film gala, conducted in partnership with PVR Cinemas, Kumar’s critically-acclaimed movies, including “Aan” (1952), “Devdas” (1955), “Ram Aur Shyam” (1967) and “Shakti” (1982), will be screened in over 30 cinema halls and 20 cities across the country. The Hindi classics will also be screened at INOX theatres in 25 to 30 locations.

PVR opened the advance booking for the festival on December 3 and the response has been encouraging, said Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Joint Managing Director, PVR Limited.

''The response to the two-day film festival on Dec 10-11 titled ‘Dilip Kumar Hero of Heroes’ featuring four critically acclaimed movies has been encouraging. We opened advance bookings on 3rd December and we have seen huge excitement among Dilip Kumar fans for two of his movies 'Aan' and 'Shakti','' Bijli said in a statement.

Prior to 'Dilip Kumar Hero of Heroes', the Film Heritage Foundation had organised a film festival on the occasion of megastar Amitabh Bachchan's 80th birthday. The film gala was a huge success and gave a much-needed boost to the otherwise struggling exhibition industry.

Rajender Singh Jyala, chief programming officer, INOX Leisure Ltd, is expecting a similar response for the Dilip Kumar film festival. ''The advance booking is looking very good. The retrospective of actors such as Amitabh Bachchan sahab and Shah Rukh Khan have been successful and we are hoping for a similar response for Dilip Kumar sahab's movies,'' Jyala told PTI.

The festival will open on Saturday evening at PVR Juhu.

According to Bijli, Hindi film personalities including Saira Banu, Waheeda Rehman, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Ramesh Sippy, Subhash Ghai, Biswajit, R Balki and Rohan Sippy are expected to attend the opening.

''Families of Bimal Roy and Mehboob Khan are also expected to grace the occasion. This will give a further hype to the festival,'' he added.