The 2009 Indian film The Endless Wait was the opening picture of this year's India Film Festival, which began Thursday at the Broadway Cinematheque MOMA near the northeast corner of the Second Ring Road in Beijing.

The film festival is a part of the Festival of India in China, and 10 films will be shown in three cities in China – Beijing, Chongqing and Guangzhou – until July 23.

"The film festival will give us a chance to see what is going on in other places," said Li Gong, 28, who works in Beijing for Studio Classroom, a series of media developed in the 1960s to teach English to Chinese people.

The evening began with a reception at Kubrick Café near the theater. Following the night's theme, Kubrick staff served various Indian hors d'oeuvres, including samosas and several desserts, at the reception.

The event then transitioned to the theater, where festival coordinators held a press conference to kick off the film festival. The conference began with a pair of women presented a history of the evolution of Indian dance.

After that, Chinese and Indian dignitaries, as well as actress Che Xiaoli and director Gao Qunshu, spoke briefly to a crowd mixed with Chinese and Indian film fanatics.

"When I was young, I watched a lot of Indian movies, like Caravan," said Gao.

"The Endless Wait," he said, "is like an Indian version of the Hollywood film You've Got Mail. This movie is very, very fantastic. It is moving and it's warm."

Gao and Che, along with Indian Ambassador to China Dr. S. Jaishankar and Tong Gang, director of film bureau of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, each spoke about the importance of sharing Chinese and Indian culture through film.

The Endless Wait tells the story of a man and a woman in Kolkata, India, who use an instant messaging service to chat online, and they fall in love. Neither knows the other's name, and when they meet in real life, via mutual friends, they fight constantly.

Indeed, The Endless Wait is similar to You've Got Mail, but significant differences make The Endless Wait a more complex and unpredictable story.

The movie was filmed in Bengali, and much of the dialogue is in English, but the film also had English and Chinese subtitles to accommodate the diverse audience.

"I will recommend this film to all of my friends," Li said afterward. "From this movie we can see that you should never wait. It makes me think I need to hurry and find my true love."

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