Ranbir and Hirani are the best in Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards 2018

It was a grand affair last night in Melbourne, Australia as some of the biggest Bollywood stars made their presence at the annual Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards Night. This year themed on inclusion at its core, the festival kicked off on 10th of August and witnessed its biggest even last night at the Palais Theatre one of the oldest and most iconic landmarks of Melbourne.

The awards night started off with a grand red carpet celebrating various cultures of India with a grand welcome to each guest. An extremely exciting night was celebrated in the presence of some of Victorian government’s senior ministers and members of the Australian film fraternity including director of Dev Patel’s LION, Garth Davis. The night witnessed various performances of various dance forms from India, but the highlight was the extremely energetic and soulful performance of Sachin-Jigar and also the phenomenal comedy set by comedian and host of the night, Saadiya Ali.

Hichki, Sanju and soon to be released Love Sonia took award the majority of awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Indie Film. The marvellous team of Mahanati took home the Equality in Cinema Award and Freida Pinto was conferred with the award for Diversity in Cinema award. The highlight of the night was when Simi Garewal gave away the top honour of the night with a moving speech to Rani Mukerji for Excellence in Cinema Award.

Freida Pinto, who won the Diversity award said, “I feel responsible to be representing the few of my own, my own country in another industry. I think it’s a huge responsibility to create such diversity. And as much as I’m honoured to be given this award, I would like to say it’s not me alone, it’s the writers, the filmmakers, the storytellers who contribute to bring forth such diversity and such diverse roles.”

Richa Chadha, who won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Love Sonia, said, “Today standing here accepting this award I want to say that without having someone who knows someone and being an outsider, I feel like I have made it. So I feel if I can do it and be an actor, so can you. Just hang it in there and if you’re talented things will come to you. I feel elated to win this award. I was one of the last people to come obo board for Love Sonia but I’m so glad I did. It’s an important film and it must be seen by people know of the importance of the topic.”

Rani Mukerji, winner of the Best Actress and Excellence in Cinema awards, said, “Thank you Melbourne and thank you to IFFM. This is my first award after becoming a mother, so it’s very special. And I’m so honoured that such a brilliant jury chose me as the winner. I usually don’t give importance to awards but with Hichki it’s different. We made this film to create awareness and I feel there’s little people know about Tourette’s and I feel by winning this award if people get more curious to discover the film even today it will help the larger idea.”

Here is the complete list of winners: 

Best Indie Film: LOVE SONIA 

Best Indie Film Special Mention: GALI GULEIYAN (IN THE SHADOWS ) 

Equality in Cinema: MAHANATI 

Diversity Award: FREIDA PINTO 

Best Actor: MANOJ BAJPAYEE FOR GALI GULEIYAN (IN THE SHADOWS ) 

IFFM VANGUARD AWARD: Ranbir Kapoor for his Breakthrough Performance in Sanju 

Best Actress: RANI MUKERJI FOR HICHKI 

Best film: SANJU 

Best Director: RAJKUMAR HIRANI 

Best Supporting Performance: VICKY KAUSHAL FOR SANJU and RICHA CHADHA FOR LOVE SONIA 

Excellence in Cinema: RANI MUKERJI

Renowned Producer Manish Goswami & Director Siddhant Goswami along with Sunil Gavaskar and Subhash Ghai inaugurate preschool

Veteran Producer Manish Goswami and his son, writer-director, Siddhant ventured into the education sector by opening their Preschool and Daycare center named - Joy in the western suburbs of Mumbai. The legendary Mr. Sunil Gavaskar  inaugurated the preschool and gave his blessings with best wishes to Siddhant and family for this new journey.

The inauguration attracted a lot of celebrities like, veteran producer-director Subhash Ghai, Sidhanshu Pandey and his wife Mona Pandey, Prabal Panjabi, Jiten Lalwani, Ayub Khan, Chetanya Adib to name a few.

IFFM begins on a high with Rani Mukerji hoisting the tricolour and talking about her dad

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, the largest film festival in the southern hemisphere, has officially begun. This morning, immigrants from all across Melbourne flocked to see their favourite superstar, Rani Mukerji, unfurl the Indian tricolour proudly at the iconic Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne city; the ceremony also saw the Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews, equivalent to the chief minister of the state, and several other important officials in attendance. 

With over 10,000 people watching, Rani spoke of the honour and said, “I think it’s a matter of national honour for anyone to hoist their national flag. And the fact that I’m doing it in Australia so far away from home is even more special and makes it more patriotic. I’m humbled that this honour been bestowed upon me by Mitu and the Victorian government so I must thank them. I have had the love of the audiences for the last 22 years and it’s that love that has got me here today. So I must thank the audiences the most. I most remember the patriotic song from my father’s film Hum Hindustani, “Chodo Kal Ki Baatein”. I really miss him here today.”

T-Series Head Honcho, Bhushan Kumar makes his Grand Digital Debut

India’s most popular music baron, Bhushan Kumar made his debut on Twitter, long after being away from social media platforms for ages. ‘Netizens’ across the globe can now expect brief and engaging insights from the Chairman and Managing Director, T-Series.

Bhushan Kumar has emerged as one of the most sought-after producers of Bollywood after giving some of the biggest blockbusters to the world to remember. The music industrialist turned film producer is quite excited to finally join the larger family of social media natives with fellow celebrities and fans.

Commenting on the same, Bhushan said, “Digital is clearly the way forward as can be seen from the numerous marketing efforts undertaken to promote a film today. Besides, we at T-Series are firm believers and followers of the digital age. It was only befitting that I join the social media universe and engage with the audience on a real time basis.”

I have been wanting to join the digital world for some time now and engage with T-Series followers. What better than having a social media account where I can share, contribute and stay in touch with the world personally.”

T-Series became the second most viewed channel globally with more than 50 million subscribers on YouTube last month. T-Series has also given major hits like, Hindi Medium, Tumhari Sulu, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety and Raid in the past one year. Now Bhushan Kumar has lined up an amazing list of forthcoming releases for us like Satyameva Jayate, Batti Gul Meter Chalu, Bharat, Taanaji, Mogul amongst the many to look forward to.

Pradeep Sarkar’s son to give playback for Helicopter Eela

National award winning director Pradeep Sarkar has commissioned his son, Ronit give playback for his upcoming directorial which stars Kajol and Riddhi Sen.

Ronit has previously sung the title track of Lafangay Parindey, which was Pradeep Sarkar’s directoral debut and which featured Deepika Padokone and Neil Nitin Mukesh.

When asked about the song in the movie, Ronit says, “The song is titled ‘Mumma Ki Parchai’ and is composed by Amit Trivedi. The team tried my voice out first and thought it was a decent match, so we went to the studio and recorded it again for the film.”

The song’s energy is what he loved the most. “Its lyrics are funny. The song is in the rock zone, which is familiar territory for me as I was a part of a few bands during college.”

Describing the song more, Ronit says, “The song is about Kajol’s Eela and her son. As a teenager, sometimes you perceive your mother’s protectiveness as her being overbearing. You are too young to understand the sentiment behind it.”

“I’ve been on set all my life but this time the film’s characters have a lot of connection with music. There was a piano on the set and a guitar too. We would be jamming in a room there. Kajol plays the piano in the film so I helped her out.”

He also mentioned that the song was recorded over an evening. “Dad wasn’t present because he tries not to be in the studio when I’m recording.” He bonded with Riddhi, a fellow musician and the male lead of the film. “Riddhi is younger than me, not just the character but the actor too. He’s a guitarist so we hung out quite a bit when I was on the set,” he informs.

Ajay Devgn & Jayantilal Gada (Pen) presents, co-produced by Kumar Mangat Pathak, Vikrant Sharma, Reshmaa Kadakia, Kushal Kantilal Gada, Neeraj Gala and produced by Ajay Devgn, Dhaval Jayantilal Gada, Aksshay Jayantilal Gada, 'Helicopter Eela' is all set to release on 7th September 2018.