In a glorious tribute to the legendary actress Madhuri Dixit, the 54th International Film Festival of India honoured her with the 'Special Recognition for Contribution to Bharatiya Cinema' Award. Reacting to the honour, Madhuri said, “I’m feeling very honoured to have been bestowed upon such an award and whenever you get this kind of an award you feel encouraged and you feel to do much better work in this creative field. You feel that hunger so that we can give more entertainment to our audiences..”
The Devdas actor also performed at the coveted film festival. “I’m very excited about my performance, especially being able to perform here at the IFFI platform. Everybody is excited to watch International films as well made in different languages,” she said. Madhuri, who was present at the ceremony with her husband Dr Nene also spoke about her home production film Panchak which is slated to release on January 5, 2024. The film is produced by both Madhuri and Dr Nene. “We are the co-founders of RNM Moving Pictures. This is our second film and it has a very strong cast rather than the best actors from the Marathi industry. Hope the film does well,” she adds. Asked if Dr Nene will also be debuting as an actor soon, she says, “He is a surgeon, he is a doctor. He hails from a different platform altogether.” However, Dr Nene quips, “Oh!, Yeah.....acting …will see…”
The opening ceremony was attended by Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Singh Thakur, and the Chief Minister of Goa, Pramod Sawant among the host of Bollywood stars and cine personalities. Touted as the World's 14th biggest International Film Competition, IFFI, the festival enters its 19th edition this year.