IFFI 2025 celebrates cinema’s power and legacy

Cinema has rare days when it seems to gather its entire history, its present voice, and its future ambition into a single frame.

At IFFI 2025, 27 November became that frame, where filmmakers, audiences, archivists, students, families and global storytellers crossed paths in a way that felt almost like a summit of cinematic purpose.

A simple question seemed to rise on its own: what shape does cinema take when so many eras and visions converge at one moment? The festival moved through tributes, restorations, discoveries and milestones with a depth that invited everyone present to see cinema as lived memory, cultural inheritance and an evolving dialogue.

The gala première welcomed Rajendra Talak and his ensemble: Priyanka Talak, Deep Sawant, Shishir Sharma, Mukesh Ghatwal, Sonia Shirsat, Omar De Loila Pereira, Lulu Fortes, Dr Hubert Gomes, Dr Jeetendra Nagarsekar, Vardhan Dhaimodkar, Anil Baindur, Ajit Deshmukh, Selwyn Menezes, Joaquim De Souza and Sanjiv Shirvaikar, reminding the festival once again of Goa’s deeply embedded creative presence.

The India Post My Stamp pavilion quickly became a cultural hotspot as visitors queued for personalised IFFI postage sheets. One attendee held the sheet carefully and said, “It’s a small imprint, but it carries the whole festival with it.” What could have been a simple stall evolved into a meaningful intersection of memory and design.

The OTT Jury session explored the philosophical and structural shifts in India’s digital storytelling environment. Bharatbala began with a clear reflection: “This medium has freed stories from formula.”

A question was then posed about how shifting forms influence artistic responsibility, and Shekhar Das responded with characteristic precision: “Art reflects the conflicts of society.” Munjal Shroff expanded the discussion by framing streaming platforms as “the democratisation of distribution,” while Rajeshwari Sachdev added a viewer-centric perspective: “Stories enter our hands now, and the curiosity for new worlds has grown.”

The open-air screenings by the shoreline brought together locals and festival delegates for titles like Home Alone, The Truman Show, IF, Manjummel Boys and 12th Fail. A visitor adjusting her seat remarked, “This is where cinema meets everyday life, simple, open and shared.” The New North-East Cinema panel offered insight into a region of profound cinematic heritage.

Haobam Paban Kumar stated, “The struggle for recognition continues.” Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap noted, “True stories come from home.” Reema Borah spoke of the long absence of North-East cinema from national discourse, while moderator Dominic Sangma reflected on identity shaped by landscape, memory and inherited storytelling forms.

International creators added their own intellectual weight. Colombia’s A Poet, Mexico’s The Devil Smokes and France’s C’est Si Bon brought personal histories and cultural nuance, illuminating how global cinema often begins in the smallest human experiences.

A moment of solemn regard followed the release of a commemorative postal stamp honouring K. Vaikunth, the cinematographer whose work helped define the visual vocabulary of classical Hindi cinema.  WAVES Film Bazaar expanded the festival’s intellectual and economic footprint, with over Rs 1050 crore in business leads, international partnerships and academic collaborations that illustrated how IFFI is increasingly positioned within global film ecosystems. A wave of nostalgia filled the auditorium when Ramesh Sippy spoke on 50 years of Sholay.

Among the many revelations, his recollection of the massacre sequence stood out: “One sequence took us 23 days. When you know what emotion the scene must hold, you wait for the sky, the light, the moment.”

On the restored original ending, he said, “Now you will finally see the film as it was made.” And recalling the casting shift, he added, “Danny’s absence gave us Amjad. That voice, that instinct, one of the finest villains ever created.”

The master class, Preserving the Classics: The Journey of SHIVA, brought Nagarjuna into thoughtful conversation. Reflecting on the values inherited from his father, he said: “Work was worship for him.

He always said the workplace is a temple, you go with a little fear, a little discipline and with faith.” He described his return to cinema after engineering studies as an inevitable movement: “Cinema was life. It was the language of my home.” On discovering Ram Gopal Varma, he recalled Varma’s extraordinary recall and instinct: “When he narrated Shiva, I could see the film happening in front of me.” He spoke of newcomers with conviction: “New people bring new energy. You gain new rhythms, new ways of seeing.” Aamir Khan’s Fireside Chat offered a concise mix of memory and craft. Remembering Dharmendra, he said, “I grew up watching Dharamji his brilliance across romance, comedy and drama revealed a performer of extraordinary range.”

On his own process, he added, “I like to surprise my audience and myself,” noting that choices like Lagaan defied industry logic. “I choose films purely based on emotional excitement,” he said. His stance was clear: “I am a complete film personality, not an activist.

My responsibility is to entertain my audience.” Looking ahead, he stated, “Any script I hear now will be only for me as an actor,” and on directing: “The day I consciously decide to take up direction, I’ll probably stop acting.” As screenings of Manushya, Andhra King Taluka, This Tempting Madness and Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Mystery continued, IFFI 2025 revealed cinema shaped by reflection and the ongoing conversation between tradition and reinvention.  

It invited audiences to consider how stories are made, preserved and reshaped. Its questions remain after the credits fade, held by the same instinct that has guided storytelling across generations.