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.
Through the video, which is a collection of photographs, she highlighted how a venture that she started to introduce modern India to the world has now become a cool hangout spot in the city.
'RRR' marks Rajamouli's comeback after a hiatus of five years. The international cast of the Telugu-language epic period action drama includes Jr. NTR, Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Samuthirakani, Alison Doody, Ray Stevenson, Olivia Morris and Shriya Saran.
On the work front, Sonam was last seen in the 2019 release 'The Zoya Factor'. She starred alongside Dulquer Salmaan. The actress then had a cameo in Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap's 'AK vs AK'.
About her next, 'Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway', Rani opens up saying, "My next project 'Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway' is a film very close to my heart. I'm hoping that the story of this film will resonate with every Indian the way it did for me and my team.
The film, which collected Rs 3.55 crore on its opening day, minted Rs 15 crore on its first Monday taking its collections to Rs 41.5 crore comfortably beating the day four collections of Alia Bhatt's recent release 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' which collected Rs 8.19 crore on Day 4, said film trade analyst Taran Adarsh.
Speaking on the sidelines of a media event on the occasion of his birthday, the 'Dil Chahta Hai' actor said: "Like a lot of people, the pandemic too gave me the time to contemplate and look back on what has happened so far in my life. I consider myself privileged to have reflected on this, it made me realize how fragile life is, how precious it is."
