Catherine Zeta-Jones is a big fan of Indian cinema: “My children have grown up watching Om Shanti Om on a loop”

The 54th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was hosted in Goa from November 20th to 28th. More than 250 films were showcased across the various sections of the festival at Shamaprasad Indoor Stadium, Panaji, Goa. The opening ceremony was headlined by Shahid Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit along with Shriya Saran, Nushratt Bharucha, Pankaj Tripathi, Shantanu Moitra, Shreya Ghoshal and Sukhwinder Singh, while the ceremony was hosted by Aparshakti Khurrana and Karishma Tanna. Hollywood veteran actor Michael Douglas became the recipient of the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award. His wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones also accompanied him to India and was one of the guests at the event.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is a big fan of Indian cinema: “My children have grown up watching Om Shanti Om on a loop”

Speaking to the media at IFFI, as per ANI, the actress said, “I love the country and the people so very much. I am a big fan of Indian Cinema. My children have grown up watching Om Shanti Om on a loop! Not just once… There are so many great movies that I have been able to watch, not much as I should have but now with streaming and film being crossing so much... A movie that I love was The Lunchbox. It was one of my favourite movies and it still is one of my favourite movies of all time. It touched me; it was so well acted, so well directed. It was a story that was so fundamentally Indian but it connected to men and women all over the world. It connected to me as a woman. I watched it on an airplane twice! I asked my agent if I could meet him in person and I did and that was really special.”

Om Shanti Om, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in the leads, was helmed by Farah Khan. It was released in 2007. Whereas The Lunchbox, directed by Ritesh Batra, was headlined by Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur and released in 2013.