A starry affair: Bollywood celebs flag off Indian Film Festival of Melbourne
Darpan News Desk IANS, 12 Aug, 2022 03:17 PM
Mumbai, Aug 12 (IANS) Bollywood celebrities such as Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Vaani Kapoor, Tamannaah Bhatia, Shefali Shah, among many others, flagged off the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne to its physical form in Australia with its 13th edition.
Other personalities who were a part of this include singer Sona Mohapatra, former cricketer and ex captain of India Kapil Dev and filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Kabir Khan, Aparna Sen, Nikkhil Advani and Shoojit Sircar.
The festival, which kicked off on Friday (August 12), will conclude on August 20.
Commenting on the occasion, Abhishek Bachchan, who is "absolutely loving" being in the moment in Melbourne, is excited to watch the screening of his 'Manmarziyaan' co-star Taapsee Pannu's upcoming film 'Dobaaraa'.
He said, "I'm looking forward to watching 'Dobaaraa'. My almost entire family has represented India here and I'm very proud of it. I'm looking forward to being part of all the celebrations and I thank the government and Mitu for having me here. It feels great to be given the Leadership in Cinema award".
The actors took to the podium in presence of a special audience to announce this year's programme schedule with 'Dobaaraa' being the opening night film.
Other events lined up apart from the screening of over 120 films are the Independence Day Celebrations of India and an array of panel discussions amongst other specially curated events.
When asked about the South and Hindi film debate at the festival, actress Tamannaah Bhatia said, "I think this conversation is only unique to India, whenever I travel abroad I never hear people distinguish, they simply call it Indian cinema. And such is the case even here at IFFM."
She feels that the audience wants to see pan India films as more of such content is being made and being admired by all.
In such instances where you have films of two top stars, or two renowned makers, releasing on the same day, sometimes both films work and otherwise, one does better than the other. It is the moviegoer who decides finally, not missing the film that interests him more.
Meanwhile, the actress is busy shooting for Rohit Shetty's cop-based web show 'Indian Police Force' which also stars Sidharth Malhotra, Vivek Oberoi and Isha Talwar. She keeps sharing BTS moments on her social media handle.
Karan spoke about how 'anti-social' Aamir is and how he is often awkward at parties. He even shared that the actor goes to a corner and would speak to just one or two people. The filmmaker went on to call Aamir a 'party pooper' too. Aamir denied the funny accusation and roasted Karan over his 50th birthday bash and the trio broke into a laughter post that.
'Bigg Boss 7' fame Kamya Punjabi, who will be seen playing the role of an ambitious woman Gauri in the new show 'Sanjog', has talked about how she prepped up for her character and learning Rajasthani dialect to do justice to her role. Kamya also shares that she is in love with her Rajasthani look and it is entirely different from her previous ones.
Ayushmann has crooned several numbers such as 'Pani da rang', 'O heeriye', 'Mitti di khushboo' and 'Mere liye tum kaafi ho', among many others. On the acting front, Ayushmann will be seen in 'An Action Hero' and 'Doctor G'.
Up ahead, Shefali will be seen reprising her role as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi in 'Delhi Crime 2', in hot pursuit of the 'kaccha-banian' gang of serial killers, and in Anubhuti Kashyap's campus comedy 'Doctor G' with Ayushmann Khurana and Rakul Preet Singh.
