English Vinglish goes to Toronto Film Festival

Foreign festivals are the preferred way to promote films and when a prestigious film festival like Toronto’s comes along, most filmmakers are quick to grab the opportunity. English Vinglish, which marks the comeback of Sridevi, will be premiered at the TFF.

Foreign festivals are the preferred way to promote films and when a prestigious film festival like Toronto’s comes along, most filmmakers are quick to grab the opportunity. And that’s what debutante director Gauri Shinde and producer R Balki did.

Their film, English Vinglish, which also marks the comeback of ’90s superstar Sridevi, will be premiered at the Toronto Film Festival (TFF) on September 14. The film also stars Adil Hussain and French actor Mehdi Nebbou, who will accompany Sridevi, Gauri and Balki to Canada.

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"The entire team is looking forward to it. The film is universal in its theme and will appeal to every kind of audience, and not just Indians," says an ecstatic Shinde. Balki, who feels TFF is a great forum to showcase a film to a world audience, shares his wife’s excitement.

"It is a huge honour for us and we couldn’t be happier. The kind of films they have chosen this year include those by Ben Affleck, Mira Nair and Robert Redford. The festival invited us for the world premiere," he says.

Ask Shinde what showcasing at a foreign film festival means to her and she’s quick to say, “Premiering a film abroad creates awareness about it. Moreover, TFF is a highly prestigious festival like the Cannes. And Gangs of Wasseypur was screened there and look at the publicity it garnered! Such festivals make a lot of difference to films as they give you a grand platform.”

It is also believed that most films screened at TFF get selected for the Oscars. Is that her goal too?

Shinde says, “No. That (the Oscars) hasn’t even crossed our minds. But why underestimate Indian films? If films from other countries can reach there, so can ours.”

In the film, Sridevi plays the role of a housewife Shashi, who enrolls for an English-speaking course to please her family.

It will be dubbed in Telugu and Tamil and all the versions will release simultaneously on September 21.