A few days from now, and a few thousand miles away from here, the Indian film industry will be celebrated. The Indian Film Festival Melbourne (IFFM), an initiative of the Victorian Government, is set to take place on August 11, and continue for the next 11 days at Melbourne Recital Centre. “The theme of the festival is Women Empowerment; a special selection of films, panels and roundtable discussions will be based on the theme,” says Mitu Bhowmick, director of the festival, via telephone from Melbourne.
For instance, the opening night features Parched (directed by Leena Yadav), which shows how women are treated as objects of sex. And the closing night will mark the Victorian premiere of Angry Indian Goddesses (directed by Pan Nalin), which follows a riotous weekend experienced by a bride-to-be and her female friends, in Goa.
“This edition will see popular personalities from the Indian film industry such as Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor, who over the last 40 years has played the romantic lead in over 90 films, from the super hit Bobby in 1973 to his most recent turn in Kapoor and Sons ; directors Leena Yadav and Srijit Mukherjee; National Award-winning actress Rituparna Sengupta and Vidya Balan, who is also the ambassador of IFFM, and actors Radhika Apte, Richa Chadda and Malaika Arora Khan,” she adds.
The festival will also feature master classes with renowned Indian film personalities and 50 film screenings in 17 languages across four Melbourne venues., besides the world premiere of Ashutosh Gowariker’s epic adventure-romance Mohenjo Daro starring Hrithik Roshan and Pooja Hegde.
“There is a growing market for Indian films here. Whenever an Indian movie releases, even the mainstream community, and not just the Indians settled here, watch it. For example, Salman-starrer Sultan ranked number nine at the box office. It played in 30 screens across the country,” says Mitu, who has brought several Indian productions like Salaam Namaste , Chak De IndiaLove Aaj Kal and television serials to Australia. Ai
Festival highlights
