HARAAMKHOR starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and directed by Shlok Sharma will have its Canadian premiere as the Opening Night film.The festival will close with Nagesh Kukunoor’s DHANAK (RAINBOW). Special Bollywood Screening from the stable of Yash Raj Films, starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar MY BIG FAT BRIDE (DUM LAGAKE HAI SHA) will launch the festival.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO (June 22
, 2015) – The OTTAWA INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL (OIFFA) announced today the Opening Night and Closing Night red carpet galas along with the special Bollywood Screening which will launch the festival. Opening Night film in competition is HARAAMKHOR, written and directed by Shlok Sharma and starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Nagesh Kukunoor’s award-winning DHANAK (RAINBOW) will close the festival with its Canadian premiere. Sharma and Kukunoor will be in attendance along with the star of HARAAMKHOR – Nawazuddin Siddiqui. A Special Bollywood Screening launching the festival on June 22nd is the Canadian Screen premiere of Yash Raj Film’s MY BIG FAT BRIDE (Dum Laga Ke Haisha), directed by Sharat Katariya starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar. Both stars will be presenting their films at the festival. Tickets to the Live Concert and Awards’ Night are now available at www.ticketmaster.ca. The full line-up will be announced on June 25th. Ottawa Indian Film Festival Awards is hosting its first edition
rom July 22nd to July 25th, 2015 at the
,
,
Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Gangs of Wasseypur, The Lunchbox, Miss. Lovely) in a masterful performance as a teacher having an illicit affair with one of his students, HARAAMKHOR, explores innocent young love that is put on a collision course with the messy reality of budding adulthood.
The Ottawa Indian Film Festival Awards is sponsored by Kalp. The main partner is Ottawa Tourism, along with Delta Ottawa City Center and Cineplex.
“OIFFA is devoted to cultivating an audience for South Asian cinema and culture. It will showcase films, support filmmakers, recognize various performers and business executives, and promote the diverse perspectives of the South Asian diaspora. Ottawa is a city of celebration, immersed in culture with a multicultural vibe and we hope to bring a cultural revolution with the launch of the festival here,” said Festival Founder & Director Inderpreet Singh.
“We’re thrilled to kick off our 1st edition with the Canadian premiere of HARAAMKHOR and DHANAK as opening night and closing night films”, said Festival Programming Director Apoorva Bakshi. She calls ‘HARAAMKHOR’ “a coming of age feature which is remarkable on many fronts not least it’s riveting script and direction, but also gripping performances by Nawaz and Shweta.” She further spoke about DHANAK as a “fresh pick from his award-winning premiere at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival and IFFLA.
Nagesh Kukunoor arrives at OIFFA with DHANAK. The gorgeous tale of a brother and sister who embark on a journey across Rajasthan in an attempt to meet the great Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, DHANAK is filled with colour, magic and music in a celebration of childhood and family.”
The 1
Annual Ottawa Indian Film Festival Awards will be at
– July 22-25, 2015.
Launching in 2015, the Ottawa Indian Film Festival is an organization devoted to a greater appreciation of Indian cinema and culture by showcasing films, honoring entertainment industry business executives, and promoting the diverse perspectives of the Indian diaspora.
The four-day festival is the premiere platform for the latest in cutting-edge global South Asian cinema and bridges the gap between the two largest entertainment industries in the world – Hollywood and South Asia. The festival will showcase more than 15 films from the South Asian filmmaking community across the globe, host the highly anticipated Lunch, Opening and Closing red carpet screenings and the Closing Awards ceremony. This year will feature the wildly popular “Bollywood Special”, Gala, Live Music Concert, and dance performances.
My Big Fat Bride (DUM LAGA KE HAISHA)
India/2015/111min/DCP/Hindi
WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Sharat Kataria
Producer: Aditya Chopra Yash Raj Films (YRF) & Maneesh Sharma
Cinematographer: Manu Anand
Editor: Namrata Rao
Composers: Andrea Guerra
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Sanjay Mishra, Bhumi Pednekar
An account of slain Human Rights lawyer Shahid Azmi, an ordinary citizen with an extraordinary commitment to justice, discovers that his oversized wife, who he thought was a spanner in his spool. The early 90's, a small town in Northern India, a young man Prem (Ayushmann Khurrana) bootlegs music cassettes as the audio CD is about to change everything in his work life, his personal life is in for a major bump too... He's about to be married off to someone he never dreamed of. Sandhya (Bhumi Pednekar) likes to dance to the band tunes even at her own wedding. He has nightmares about drawing a blank at his English exam. She is about to carve a niche for herself as a teacher, she is everything he isn't, including her size. But now they are married and they’re supposed to spend a lifetime together and he is still fighting his own preconceived notions of a model bride he dreamt of, his insecurities of overcoming his fear of the English language to dealing with an overbearing father. On the verge of self destruction, he will actually lead him to something quite fulfilling.
Stills for the film are available upon request.
HARAAMKHOR
India/2015/90min/DCP/Hindi
Director: Shlok Sharma
Producer: Guneet Monga, Anurag Kashyap
Screenwriter: Shlok Sharma
Cinematographer: Siddharth Diwan
Editor: Kratika Adhikari
Composers: Vishal Khurana, Karan Gour
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shweta Tripathi, Harish Khanna
Innocent young love is put on a collision course with the messy reality of budding adulthood in Shlok Sharma’s unforgettable feature debut. Young student Kamal is infatuated with his 15-year-old classmate Sandhya, and together with his best friend Mintu devises countless imaginative schemes to win her affection. But Sandhya has a troubling infatuation of her own: she is carrying on an affair with her teacher, Shyam (another masterful performance by Nawazuddin Siddiqui). When the two young boys catch on to this illicit arrangement, events are set into motion that could lead to tragedy for all involved. Shlok Sharma deftly alternates the tone of his film between lighthearted, youthful adventure and more sobering, truthful moments. Sharply aware of the fact that childhood longings rarely come to fruition, Sharma watches sympathetically as each of his four central characters stumble and falter in their attempts to hold onto a desire they’d be better off forgetting, while the audience braces for impact when the inevitable crash comes.
Stills for the film are available upon request.
DHANAK (RAINBOW)
India/2015/103min/Hindi
CANADA PREMIERE
Director: Nagesh Kukunoor
Producer: Manish Mundra, Nagesh Kukunoor, Elahe Hiptoola
Screenwriter: Nagesh Kukunoor
Cinematographer: Chirantan Das
Editor: Sanjib Datta
Composer: Tapas Relia
Cast: Krrish Chhabria, Hetal Gada, Gulfam Khan, Vipin Sharma, Suresh Menon, Chet Dixon, Fllora Saini, Vijay Maurya, Vibha Chhibber, Rajiv Laxman
A tale of a brother and sister who embark on a journey across Rajasthan in an attempt to meet the great Shah Rukh Khan. Pari is the responsible older sister to Chotu, a high-spirited blind boy on the brink of his ninth birthday. Chotu wants nothing more than to have his vision back and Pari — inspired by a message she sees on a Shah Rukh Khan poster — promises him he’ll get it before his birthday arrives. When the two learn that Shah Rukh Khan is filming only a few hundred kilometers from their village, they sneak away from home and set out to meet the superstar. What follows is a trek full of side-splitting banter and bickering between the two remarkable children, vibrant colors, lively music, new friendships, and harrowing danger. Kukunoor’s two young leads embody the adventurous spirit that comes with growing up and taking your fate into your own hands for the first time. He has crafted an utterly gorgeous film around one simple wish, and ultimately delivers a disarming, heartfelt plea to recognize and appreciate the beauty that exists all around us.
Ticket for Live Concert and Award night will go on sale
at www.ticketmaster.ca For film screenings, workshop, gala night and other events, tickets will go on sale at www.ottawaindianfilmfestival.com on
For more information, please visit www.ottawaindianfilmfestival.com or follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/OttawaIndianFilmFestival), Twitter https://twitter.com/OIFFA_2015 For more enquiries please contact - media@ottawaindianfilmfestival.com
Comments