NEW DELHI: Oscar-winning maestro AR Rahman, 45, has won one more Lifetime Achievement Award - this time at the Eighth Dubai International Film Festival.

Hollywood and Bollywood stars walked the red carpet at the opening of the Festival which will continue till 14 December. The Festival opened with the world premiere of ‘Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol‘. ‘Laptop‘ by Kaushik Ganguly is among the nine Asian films in competition.

Tom Cruise returned to Dubai after shooting major scenes for the action-thriller in the emirate over 23 days, including stunts on the 828-metre high, 160-floor Burj Khalifa skyscraper, currently the world‘s tallest freestanding structure. He was joined on the red carpet by the film‘s director Brad Bird and his co-stars Paula Patton, Simon Pegg and Anil Kapoor, one of several Bollywood stars attending the festival.

A "public interactive session" with the director Farhan Akhtar and stars Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra of upcoming Bollywood action-thriller ‘Don 2‘ proved to be a major attraction. Other attractions from India include the world premiere of Maneesh Sharma‘s comedy ‘Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl‘ with stars Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma.

This film is within the annual "Celebration of Indian Cinema" section which includes a diverse range of Indian films in Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam as well as Hindi. It includes a special two-film tribute to composer AR Rahman.

The festival will screen 124 feature films, including 11 from India, six from Japan, three from South Korea and two films from both Hong Kong and the Philippines.

The Muhr AsiaAfrica Competition includes Asian films that have previously competed at this year‘s Cannes Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival.