During the activities of the third day of the prestigious festival — which will run till 5 December — a special talk was hosted in the afternoon as part of the CIFF’s Cairo Industry Days featuring Egyptian renowned composer Hisham Nazih discussing the magnificent work of A. R. Rahman.

During the talk, Rahman, 54, expressed his excitement for being honoured at such an important festival and his delight for visiting Egypt.

The composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist presented glimpses of his prolific career during the festival and how he integrates Eastern classics with electronic music, world genres, and traditional orchestral arrangements.

Rahman — who worked in Bollywood and on other international cinema and theatre projects, and has recently established his fame as a humanitarian and philanthropist — is one of the world’s top selling recording artists and the highest paid composers of the motion picture industry.

After years of composing scores for documentaries and jingles for Indian TV, Rahman’s film-scoring career took off in the early 90s with Tamil hit ‘Roja’ that led him to write many scores and songs for Tamil films, including ‘Bombay’, ‘Kadhalan’, ‘Thiruda Thiruda’, and ‘Gentleman.’

His international big break came after the great success of the scores of 2008’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ that earned him Best Original Score and Best Original Song at the 81st Academy Awards.

Rahman is also a winner of two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, four National Film Awards, 15 Filmfare Awards, and 13 Filmfare Awards South, in addition to numerous other awards and nominations.

Also on Sunday, a panel discussion was held on Ramadan drama series that featured Egyptian director Peter Mimi alongside screenwriter Hany Sarhan and actor Eyad Nassar which was attended by many filmmakers and critics and headed by Minister of Culture Ines Abdel-Dayem.

Screening over 111 films from 63 countries, the activities of the CIFF’s 43rd edition include numerous world premieres, workshops and seminars, as well as a number of honouring ceremonies for a number of renowned filmmakers such as Egyptian veteran artist Nelly, Egyptian star actor Karim Abdel-Aziz, director of the Cannes International Film Festival Thierry Frémaux, among others.