Catherine Zeta-Jones' Shah Rukh Khan Connection

Did you know that Catherine Zeta-Jones' children grew up watching films like Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om?

Zeta-Jones made the revelation at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, as she said, 'I love the country and the people so very much. My children grew up watching Om Shanti Om.'

Another of her favourite films is The Lunchbox, starring Irrfan, Nawazuddin Siddique and Nimrat Kaur.

'There are so many great movies that I have been able to watch. A movie that I love is The Lunchbox. It still is one of my favourite movies of all time. It touched me, it was so well acted, so well directed,' Zeta-Jones added.

Zeta-Jones is visiting the country with her husband, movie star and producer Michael Douglas as well as their son Dylan.

Michael Douglas shared his happiness in visiting India: ;It is always a pleasure visiting India, but this is my first time in the south. Cinema brings the world together and you have a big history of cinema in India.

'The (IFFI) festival is ending tomorrow. We are here at the end of the festival but I think it is so exciting. It is an international festival. You have over 78 countries represented here.'

'With all the different languages we speak, movies share the same language,' Michael said. 'Audiences from wherever you are in the world can understand what's going on. Movies bring us closer together and I think that's a very important aspect of it.'

Michael also spoke about the way the Indian film industry is making its mark at the international level and appreciated the music of RRR, calling it 'spectacular', as its song Naatu Naatu won an Oscar.

'It was spectacular, I mean bravo! (RRR) won the Oscar for the music but it was stunning. It deserves everything it gets and I think it gives you more confidence to try to make good films.'

Douglas was conferred with the prestigious Satyajit Ray Excellence in Film Lifetime Award at the festival, and he felt grateful.

The 79-year-old actor spoke about his connection with Satyajit Ray, saying, 'When I was in the University of California at Santa Barbara, I was taking a film course starting in 1963. This is about 1964 and one of the directors that we studied a lot was Satyajit Ray. If I remember correctly, it was a film called Pather Panchalia nd I realised that he was not only the director, but he was a writer, a film-maker, a musician and he authored books.

'He was quite an extraordinary man, and also the sense of dealing with people. He would not think of being heroic or large scale but showing a reality and a texture that we had known about... all left me with an impression.'