Turning 70, Amitabh Bachchan who is a mega icon of Bollywood, has been invited as the guest of honour, at the 12th River to River Florence Indian Film Festival, in Italy, starting from December 7.The event will take place at Cinema Odeon, in Florence, under the Patronage of the Embassy of India and the Italy-India association.

Directed by Selvaggia Velo, the festival is devoted to Inian Cinema and is likely to present some of Bachchan's films like Deewar, Sholay and Black. A documentary on his life, will also be presented at the festival. A restored version of India's very first film Raja Harishchandra by Dadasaheb Phalke will also be shown at the festival in collaboration with the National Film Archive of India.

The main aim of this festival is to promote only films from and about India. During the first year of the festival in 2001, Indian cinema was seeing a new life: Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan won the Audience Award in Locarno and Monsoon Wedding by Mira Nair wins the Golden Lion in Venice. And in 2002 Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas was screened in Cannes.

The festival is one of kind, we must say!