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.
Several Bollywood personalities and Karan's close friends were spotted attending the party such as Gauri Khan, Farah Khan, Seema Khan and Maheep Kapoor attended the party.
The film is directed by Jasmeet K. Reen and brings together noted music composer and director Vishal Bharadwaj and famed lyricist Gulzar. The film is produced by Gauri Khan, Alia Bhatt and Gaurav Verma.
A film like Mission Majnu is sure to excite the fans of the action-thriller genre. Moreover, there is also a historical drama — Prithviraj and a complete family entertainer — Jug Jugg Jeeyo to enthral the family audience. So, block your dates now.
Several Indian personalities are attending the prestigious event such as Deepika Padukone, R Madhavan, Kamal Haasan, A.R. Rahman, Pooja Hegde, Aditi Rao Hydari and Nawazuddin Siddiqui among many others.
French actor and filmmaker Vincent Lindon, who starred in the 2021 Palm d'Or-winning film 'Titane', is the president of the jury, which includes, besides Deepika, Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, English actress and director Rebecca Hall, Italian actress Jasmine Trinca, French director and screenwriter Ladj Ly, Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, and American director Jeff Nichols.
]Tushar, who had participated in dance reality show 'Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa' and was also the stage director of the reality show 'India's Got Talent', is now all set to be seen on 'Khatron Ke Khiladi 12'. He made his career as a choreographer in Bollywood with the movie 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil'.
