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.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R.M. Nerlikar rejected the bail applications of Aryan, Arbaaz Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha, on grounds of "maintainability", upholding the contentions of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) legal team.
Aryan, 23, was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) along with seven others on charges of consumption, sale, and purchase of narcotic drugs, after a rave party was busted aboard a luxury cruise liner.
Aryan Khan's lawyer Satish Maneshinde and advocate Taraq K. Sayed, representing another accused Arbaaz Merchant, said that now they plan to move the appropriate court for regular bail on Friday.
The film is the story of Niranjan Singh and Satwant Kaur who are parents to four sons who have been brought up by them with immense love and affection.
Ironically, life became a full circle when a couple of days ago, SRK had to take the NCB's permission for a brief meet with his son in the agency lock-up, when the 24-year-old cried before his celeb dad, though eventually it has surfaced that no drugs were recovered from him.
Saif spoke with host Siddharth Kannan in an interview for the latter's YouTube channel. While Ibrahim is ready to enter Bollywood, Saif revealed that he is first understanding the filmmaking process by being behind the camera.
