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.
The social media platform Twitter made the move after incendiary tweets regarding the West Bengal election results sounded alarm bells towards violence.
Firstly, I am inspired that Sonu made this critical observation. Secondly, in typical Sonu style, he has also thought of a solution and come up with some suggestions for action. Sonu’s suggestion is to both the state and central governments to ensure free education for all children affected by Covid.
Under the watchful mentorship of celebrated chef, Sarita Pereira of The Lovefools, Kareena Kapoor Khan tries her hand at whipping up a made-from-scratch gourmet Pizza for a few of her closest friends while getting candid about her love for food and dishing out little-known details about her life.
Not suprisingly enough Rakhi sarcastically replied, "It is unavailable? Oh ho! Kangana, please serve the nation. You have so much money, buy oxygen and distribute it among people"
A crew of 150 people was filming at the set around 8pm, 2 hours after the restrictions to curb the virus were put in effect. Shortly after the police were there.
The news of Shravan Rathod passing away was shared by his son Sanjeev Rathod. Shravan admitted to a hospital in Mumbai a few days after he contracted COVID19 and also was dealing with heart problems.
.jpg "Actress Rakhi Sawant asks Kangana Ranaut to arrange oxygen cylinders as India grapples worst COVID wave")
