Ahead of the 100th birth anniversary of Dev Anand which falls on the 26th of September, the Film Heritage Foundation announced a unique festival titled ‘Dev Anand@100 – Forever Young’, that pays tribute to the timeless entertainment icon. The two-day weekend celebrations held jointly in association with NFDC-NFAI (National Film Development Corporation Of India- National Film Archive Of India) and PVR Inox will be conducted on the 23rd and 24th of September across 30 cities and 55 cinema halls all over India. Amitabh Bachchan is pleased that the Film Heritage Foundation has planned the festival to celebrate Dev Anand’s centennial. Here’s what he said about it.
Amitabh Bachchan on Film Heritage Foundation paying tribute to Dev Anand on his centenary
Expressing his joy at the Film Heritage Foundation paying tribute to Dev Anand on his centenary, Amitabh Bachchan exclusively told Pinkvilla, “After seeing the success of Film Heritage Foundation’s retrospective “Dilip Kumar – Hero of Heroes” on the occasion of his birth centenary last year, I am so pleased that they have planned a festival of four iconic Dev Anand films to be released in cinemas across the country in a manner that befits a legend of Indian cinema. He signified something that was endless, a continuity which we all took as a given. The fact that we can watch these films almost 70 years after the first one was released, is because they have been preserved and restored. This only reaffirms the importance of saving our films for future generations to enjoy.”
Big B further recalled watching Dev Anand’s films in theatres during his hostel days. He said, “As Devsaab turns 100 this year, I still remember how his attitude and singular style in his performances, would get us out of our hostel beds in the middle of the night, jump the boundary walls of the college to the nearest film theatre repeatedly, just to witness the magic of his charm and energy. And on our way back we would sing along with his songs, his deliveries of dialogue and create this wonderful world he had structured for us to be remembered forever.”
Film Heritage Foundation, founded by filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, has meticulously curated a tailored collection of films where audiences can spend the weekend with Dev Anand in his different memorable avatars as the romantic hero, the dashing spy and the fun-loving rogue.
Audiences in Mumbai, Pune, Goa, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Chennai, Bangalore, Lucknow, Kolkata, Guwahati, Indore, Jaipur, Nagpur, Chandigarh, New Delhi, Gwalior, Rourkela, Raipur, Noida, Kochi, Aurangabad, Vadodara, Surat, Mohali amongst other cities will get an unmissable opportunity to watch these landmark films of the debonair leading man restored by NFCDC-NFAI on the big screen: C. I. D. (1956), Guide (1965), Jewel Thief (1967) and Johny Mera Naam (1970).
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