Awards galore for Piku at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne
From best film to best actor, Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone starrer Piku took away many awards at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM). Bhumi Pednekar also bagged the best actress award for Dum Laga Ke Haisha.
After winning hearts at home, the Deepika Padukone-starrer Piku is now stealing the show at award functions. The movie, based on a father-daughter relationship, won the best film award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2015 and Shoojit Sircar took home the best director award. A third feather was added to Piku's cap when actor Irrfan Khan was named the best actor.
Actor Bhumi Pednekar picked her first award as the best actress for Dum Laga Ke Haisha.
The second day of IFFM 2015 ended with a glamourous fashion show celebrating theme of 'equality' and honouring the best of Indian cinema Down Under.
The event took place at the iconic National Gallery of Victoria and was attended by several luminaries and high profile dignitaries including Australian High Commissioner to India Patrick Suckling, Indian High Commissioner Navdeep Suri, Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, Consul General Manika Jain, Anil kapoor, Bhumi Padnekar, Simi Grewal, Sonam Kapoor, film director Shojit Sircar, Rajeev Masand, Victorian special minister Gavin Jennings.
The award ceremony, a special event of this year's festival, for the first time coincided with the 69th Indian Independence Day celebrations held at the iconic Federation square building in the morning where Anil Kapoor and Suri hoisted the tricolour.
Kaka Muthai film received the best indie film award and Best Telstra People's Choice Award was given to Rajkumar Hirani for PK.
Anil was also conferred with a special award for excellence in the world cinema.
Speaking on the award night, Executive Chairman of Visy and Pratt Industries, Pratt described himself as a fan of India in Australia and said that for Australia, India was exotic yet familiar.
"I believe that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the next ten years will be the greatest in India's great history and the 2.6 billion eyeballs trained on every Bollywood movie is testament to your power."
Pratt's philanthropy, the Pratt Foundation has been involved in many Indian causes from food security to slum transformation. He said that next year his business will come to India as the largest 100% recycled packaging company in India.
"We hope to extend that relationship to supporting film festivals such as this, in Bollywood. Indeed India is one giant festival, a world in a country," he said.
The fashion show saw collections of five leading designers from both India and Melbourne including Anamika Khanna, Gaurav Gupta, Roopa Pemmaraju, Susan Dimasi and Richard Nylon.
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