Cairo Film Festival kicks off with special tribute to Bollywood stars

The 38th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) kicked off on Tuesday at the Cairo Opera House with an opening show which paid a special tribute to Bollywood celebrities, who enjoy great fan following in the country.

The show, which was directed by Egyptian theater director Khaled Galal, featured Egyptian singer Nesma Mahgoub, who sang a number in which she mentioned the names of international celebrities.

"Bollywood celebrities are my love since very long," sang Nesma during the show.

The photographs of Bollywood celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, director Farah Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Rishi Kapoor, Salman Khan were shown in a video made specially for the event.

Three films from India are participating at this year's Cairo International Film Festival, which runs until 24 November.

Indian movie "The Narrow Path" by Satish Babusenan and Santosh Babusenan will be screened in the International competition, while "Half Ticket" by Samit Kakkad will be screened in the International panorama category.

The third movie is "Lipstick Under My Burkha" by Alankrita Shrivastava and it will be shown during the Festival of Festivals competition.

This year, the festival features 204 films in all categories.

The Cairo International Film Festival is one of the 14 most important film festivals in the world, and the only one in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, to be accorded category "A" status by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF