Panaji, Nov 28 (UNI) Curtains came down on the nine day International Film Festival of India (IFFI) with a glittering closing ceremony organised at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium here on Sunday.

Actors Randhir Kapoor, Manoj Bajpayee, Madhuri Dixit were felicitated for their contribution to Indian cinema.

Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Chairman and lyricist Prasoon Joshi was awarded with 'Indian Film Personality of the Year Award'.

Madhuri Dixit was chief guest at the ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, Madhuri Dixit thanked IFFI for recognizing the contribution of actress Hema Malini by honouring her with 'Indian Film Personality of the Year Award' this year.

She said it was a wonderful time for women in films.

Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur congratulated the movies that got selected for the film festival in various categories and invited world directors to India to share their talent.

He congratulated 75 creative minds representing gen next cinema for attending the ceremony and hoped that some of them would come back as icons of cinema.

The novel initiative was organised under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to encourage and recognise young creative minds and budding talents in the country.

Lyricist Prasoon Joshi said he would continue to do what he does.

He said there should be magic in films. However, he said filmmaking was not magic and there was no shortcut to it.

Uttar Pradesh was awarded the most friendly state for film shooting.

As many as 234 films were screened during the festival.
UNI AKM ACL1803