MUMBAI:Film stars of China recently launched a blockbuster film The Beginning of the Great Revival that celebrates the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. The film is part of a series of events in China marking the anniversary.

The film traces developments between the 1911 revolution that overthrew imperial rule and the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party on 13 July, 1921. It features many of the Chinese film industry‘s biggest names such as Andy Lau and Chow Yun-fat, who attended Wednesday‘s event. 

Director Han Sanping has said that the film was better than 2009‘s The Founding of a Republic which related the story of the Communist Party winning power in 1949. Its success was helped by politically correct theatre operators who flooded their properties with screenings. The Beginning of the Great Revival is likely to receive similar treatment.

China Film Group is hoping for a repeat of the success it had with The Founding of a Republic which made 415 million yuan ($61 million) at the box-office, a large amount for China.

Communist China‘s founding father, Mao Zedong, is played by Chinese actor Liu Ye, best known to Western audiences for his roles in the Zhang Yimou imperial drama Curse of the Golden Flower and the drama Dark Matter, which costarred Meryl Streep.