New York Indian Film Festival 2017 opens with "LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA" #NYIFF2017

Alankrita Shrivastava, Rahul Bose, Aahana Kumra

Alankrita Shrivastava is the director of Lipstick Under My Burkha, Rahul Bose is an Indian actor, writer, director with film Poorna, Aahna Kumra is the actress in Lipstick Under My Burkha

Aahna Kumra

Tanushree Dutta (Ex Miss India), with Rahul Bose

Siraj Huda

Siraj Huda is an NYC based actor, with film VEGAS at NYIFF

Sunil Sadarngani

Sunil Sadarangani is an LA based producer & writer, who's founder of Future Shorts Media

The 17th New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) opened up today at Village East Cinema, in Manhattan, New York City. The opening night was attended by several Indian celebrities: Rahul Bose (actor, writer, director with a film POORNA at the festival); Alankrita Shrivastava (director of LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA); Aahna Kumra (actress from LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA); Salman Rushdie (author & filmmaker); Tanushree Dutta (Miss India Universe & Bollywood Actress); and many others.

The opening night film LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA had its New York premiere at the festival. The film is a wonderful story of 4 women at different ages and stages of their lives, who are just trying to live a free life, in a very conservative male dominant society. Buaji (wonderfully played by Ratna Pathak) is a complex owner shielding several of her renters from a new builder trying to force-relocate them. She reads adult story books, and fantasizes about young hot men. In that complex lives 3 other girls: Shirin (Konkona Sen Sharma), Leela (Aahana Kumra), Rehana (Plabita Borthakur). Shirin is an enterprising mom of 3, whose husband doesn't really care to stays her in any way. Leela is a budding beautician, who wants to start a business of honeymoon photography with her boyfriend. But she is being forced in to an arranged marriage. Rehana just wants to be able to dress up, sing and have fun in college. But she also likes to shoplift. 

All the characters have their flaws. And they all have their goals. It's not just there flaws that get in their way, but it's also the society, the norms and other people's sexist expectations that block their way. The film deals with multiple generations, and issues that are specific to them. Which probably helps the film connect with a wider audience through different characters. It does portal a fair picture of sexism that still exists in many parts of India, and probably can be reflected in many parts of this world. 

Even though ealing with a heavy subject like that, the film is still able to keep comedy in its spirit. You may call it a real "dramedy", where drama takes over at several instances, but comedy keep things funny, light, but still on the point. The film is beautifully written with wonderful dialogue as well. It may seem too bold or vulgar to certain audience, but the story and the wonderful actors carry that dialogue and every scene really well. The film is cast really well, and all the actors do justice to their roles. It's a very well made film, and the director Alankrita deserves applause, along with her editor, cinematographer and rest of the team.

17th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL April 30-May 7, 2017

Starting tomorrow, there are several wonderful films that will be screening at the festival. More details can be found at the link below, along with purchase of the ticket as well. The closing night on May 7th would also be followed by an after-party with Indian music & Indian food. All the tickets can be purchased before they are sold out. So do it ASAP.
http://www.iaac.us/nyiff2017/
Schedule
http://www.iaac.us/nyiff2017/schedule.htm
Tickets
http://www.iaac.us/nyiff2017/tickets.htm

NYIFF is the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States, screening premieres of feature, documentary and short films made from, of, and about the countries in the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan) in the Independent, arthouse, alternate and diaspora genres. Eight days of screenings, post-screening discussions, industry panels, an award ceremony, special events, nightly networking parties, red carpet galas, media attention and packed audiences build an awareness of Indian cinema, entertain & educate North Americans about the realities of the lives and people in the Indian Sub-Continent,  and add to the amazing cultural diversity of New York City. NYIFF is the flagship event of the Indo-American Arts Council.

NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES ITS AWARDS #NYIFF2016

Photo Caption: Salman Rushdie presenting the award for Best Film accepted by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni for HIGHWAY who also won Best Director for the film. (Photo credit: Mo Pitz)

HIGHWAY WINS TOP AWARDS IN FESTIVAL

The New York Indian Film Festival 2016 (NYIFF) announced the winners of its competition categories, on the evening of May 14th, at a ceremony at The Skirball Center, in the final event for the successful festival, which ran May 7 – May 14.

 “I am delighted to honor these brilliant filmmakers for the diversity of their plots, themes and characters!” said Aroon Shivdasani, IAAC Executive & Artistic Director.

“Our jury had a tough job since this year's nominations were very strong,” commented NYIFF’s film festival director Aseem Chhabra. “I congratulate all the winners, the nominees and also other filmmakers who shared their films with our audiences."

Below is the full list of winners:

Best Film: Highway
Best Director: Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni for Highway
Best Screenplay: Ruchika Oberoi, Island City
Best Actor: Rajit Kapoor, Threshold
Best Actress: Neena Gupta, Threshold
Best Child Actor: Vedashree Mahajan, The Silence
Best Documentary: Cities of Sleep
Best Short: 

Checkout more pics from the closing night:  http://www.iaac.us/NYIFF2016/gallery.htm

16th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL FULL LINEUP ANNOUNCED

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The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) announced the full lineup last night for their 16th year of celebrating independent, art house, alternate, and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent (May 7 - May 14). Dedicated to bringing these films to a New York audience, the festival will feature 40 screenings (35 narrative, 5 documentary) - all seen for the first time in New York City. In addition, the festival will also feature five programs of short films.

The festival highlights various cinemas of India's different regions. All the films are subtitled in English and some of the languages this year include Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telegu, Assamese, Haryanavi and Urdu. This year’s festival will feature a couple of sidebars --NFDC restored first films of filmmakers and a three-generations sidebar, films of Bimal Roy, Basu Bhattacharya and Aditya Bhattacharya. 

The festival’s film lineup includes 2016 National Award winners A FAR AFTERNOON, BIRDS WITH LARGE WINGS and THE RIVER OF FABLES (KOTHANODI). THE RIVER OF FABLES is an Assamese language feature film written and directed by Bhaskar Hazarika and stars Seema Biswas and Adil Hussain. The story of the film is based on folktales from Assam, India.
   
“We are thrilled to be able to share these films with the New York audience,” states Aseem Chhabra, NYIFF festival director. “Three of the feature films are National Award winners. And out of the nearly 40 shorts we are showing this year, there are two National Award winners: FAMOUS IN AHMEDABAD and DAARVATHA.”

Straight from the Sundance Film Festival, BRAHMAN NAMAN is a true Indian teenage comedy. It is funny, touching and will be universal in its appeal. It is about the exhilaration and confusion of being 17 - the pleasure of being in a gang, breaking the rules, acting big, falling in love - coming of age.

From the Tamil films, CRIME IN PUNISHMENT is the latest film from NYIFF alum and 2015 NYIFF award winner M. Manikandan. FOR THE LOVE OF A MAN is a documentary film that explores the popularity of the Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth. 

GOOD OL’ BOY is the feel-good, coming-of-age story of Smith, a 10-year-old boy from India growing up in Small Town, America in 1979. This Diaspora film features actors Samrat Chakrabarti (Midnight’s Children, The Waiting City) and Poorna Jagannathan (Delhi Belly, Nirbhaya).

Bengali master, Soumitra Chatterjee starrer PEACE HAVEN is the story of three septuagenarian friends who embark on a journey to build their very own mortuary. 
  
Multiple award winner and fresh from the international film festival circuit PARCHED is a story about women set in the heart of parched rural landscape of Gujarat, India. It traces the bittersweet tale of four ordinary women Rani, Lajjo, Bijli and Janaki. We see them unapologetically talk about men, sex and life as they struggle with their individual boundaries to face their demons and stage their own personal wars.

WORLD PREMIERE of KAGAZ KI KASHTI (PAPERBOAT)

In an era when Bollywood music ruled the Indian households and when Ghazal as a genre was limited to only the connoisseurs, Jagjit Singh made Ghazals a necessity of every music lover's collection. KAAGAZ KI KASHTI traces the life journey of a down-to-earth, small-town boy, who made it big by breaking through the norms and the Ghazal scenario, by texturing traditional Ghazal singing with western instrumentation and making it simple and hummable, enticing new listeners into becoming Ghazal fans.
  
“The 2016 festival features a wide array of films from all over the South Asian diaspora,” states IAAC founder Aroon Shivdasani. This year our films reflect the reality of India, dealing both with LGBT issues that have surfaced in the supreme court and on the streets, as well as strong feminist films dealing with female infanticide, child marriage, domestic abuse, trafficking and several other key issues that affect women in a world that still leans towards chauvinism.”

Festival Passes and Individual Tickets can be purchased at the festival's website:

Full line up Schedule with films synopsis:

URL: http://www.iaac.us/NYIFF2016/schedule.htm

The 16th Annual NYIFF’s features selections include:

OPENING NIGHT GALA
Saturday May 7, 2016 at 6 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC

16th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL - Opening Night Film: Let's Dance to The Rhythm

Let's Dance to The Rhythm
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2014/2 hr 36 min Directed by Bardroy Baretto Cast: Vijay Maurya, Palomi Ghosh, Prince Jacob

CENTERPIECE
Tuesday May 10, 2014 at 6:30 pm at Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave & 12th Street, NYC
Highway
US PREMIERE
India/2015/ 2 hr 17 min Directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni Cast: Mukta Barve, Sunil Barve, Tisca Chopra

CLOSING NIGHT
Saturday May 14, 2016 at 5 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC
Aligarh
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2015/114 min Directed by Hansal Mehta Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Rajkummar Rao

A Far Afternoon- A painted saga by Krishen Khanna
Sruti Harihara Subramaniam
Documentary
2015/India/1 hr 11 min 9 sec
English

Krishen Khanna, Ashvin Rajagopalan, Gayatri Sinha, A.Ramachandran, Ranjit Hoskote, Akbar Padamsee

Anubhav

Basu Bhattacharya
Feature Narrative
1971/India/2 hr 19 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Sanjeev Kumar, Tanuja Samarth, Dinesh Thakur, A. K. Hangal

Arshinagar

Aparna Sen
2015/India/2 hr 14 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Dev, Rittika Sen, Jisshu Sengupta, Waheeda Rehman, Kaushik Sen, Jaya Seal Ghosh, Roopa Ganguly, Swagata Mukherjee

Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastan

Saeed Mirza
Feature Narrative
1978/India
Hindi with English subtitles
Dilip Dhawan, Anjali Paigankar, Shreeram Lagoo, Om Puri, Sulabha Deshpande, Rohini Hattangadi, Satish Shah

Birds with Large Wings

Dr. Biju Damodaran
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 56 min
Malayalam with English subtitles
Kunchacko Boban, Nedumudi Venu, Suraj venjaramoodu, Salim Kumar, Prakash Bare, James Bradford, Thampy Antony, Sajeev Pillai, Anumol

Brahman Naman

Qaushiq Mukherjee
Feature Narrative
2016/USA/1 hr 35 min, English
Shashank Arora, Tanmay Dhanania, Chaitanya Varad, Vaishwath Shankar, Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy, Subholina Sen

Cinemawala

Kaushik Ganguly
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 35 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Paran Bandopadhay, Parambrata Chatterjee,Arun Guha Thakurta, Sohini Sarkar, Lama Halder

Cities of Sleep

Aman Mann
Documentary
2015/India/1 hr 14 min
Hindi with English subtitles

City of Dark

Spandan Banerjee
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 15 min
Bengali with English subtitles

Crime in Punishment

M. Manikandan
Feature Narrative
2016/India/1hr 37 min 22 sec
Tamil with English subtitles

Dubai Return

Aditya Bhattacharya
Feature Narrative
2005/India/1 hr 36 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Irrfan Khan, Divya Dutta, Razak Khan, Vijay Maurya, Mukesh Bhatt, Anupam Shyam, Ritu Shivpuri, Shaukat Baig as Casper

For the Love of a Man

Rinku Kalsy
Feature Narrative
2015/India, Netherlands/1 hr 22 min
Tamil with English subtitles
G. Mani, Suganthi Mani, N. Ravi, N. Murugan, Kamal Anand, Quadir Hoseyn, Ravi Anna, K. Hariharan, Uma Vangal

G - A wanton heart

Feature Narrative
2015/India/1hr 43 min 13 sec
Haryanavi with English subtitles

Gaman

Rajah Muzaffar Ali
Feature Narrative
1978/India/2 hr 15 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Farooq Shaikh, Smita Patil, Jalal Agha, Nana Patekar, Gita Siddharth

Good Ol' Boy

Frank Lotito
Feature Narrative
2015/USA/1hr 43 min
English
Jason Lee, Anjul Nigam, Brighton Sharbino, Hilarie Burton, Roni Akurati

Island City

2015/India/1hr 51 min
Feature Narrative
Hindi with English subtitles
Tannishtha Chatterjee, Vinay Pathak, Ashwin Mushran, Amruta Subhash

Ka Bodyscapes

Jayan K Cherian
Feature Narrative
2016/India/1 hr 38 min 44 sec
Malayalam with English subtitles
Naseera, Jason Chacko, Rajesh Kannan

Kadambari

Suman Ghosh
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 30 min
Konkona SenSharma, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Kousik Sen, Titas Bhowmick, Srikanto Acharya, Sanjoy Nag, Senjuti Mukhopadhyay, Sreelekha Mitra

Kagaz Ki Kashti (Paperboat)

Brahmanand S Singh
Documentary
2016/India/
Hindi/ Urdu with English subtitles
Jagjit Singh, Chitra Singh, Gulzar, Mahesh Bhatt, Pankaj Udhas, Anup Jalota

Khoya

Sami Khan
Feature Narrative
2015/Canada/1 hr 22 min
English
Rupak Ginn, Ravi Khanvikar, Rachel Wilson

Life in Metaphors: A Portrait of Girish Kasaravalli

OP Srivastava
Documentary
2015/India/1 hr 24 min
English
Girish Kasaravalli

Luka Chuppi (Hide and Seek)

Bash Mohammed
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 49 min
Malayalam with English subtitles
Murali Gopy, Jayasurya, Joju George

Moh Maya Money (In greed we trust)

Munish Bhardwaj
Feature Narrative
2016/India/1 hr 48 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Ranvir Shorey, Neha Dhupia, Devendra Chauhan, Vidushi Mehra, Ashwath Bhatt

Nila

Selvamani Selvaraj
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 36 mins
Sruthi Hariharan, Vicky, Sarvesh Sridhar, Rajan Sekri, Srikanth, Pooja

Parched

Leena Yadav
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 58 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Tannishtha Chatterjee, Surveen Chawla, Radhika Apte, Lehar Khan

Peace Haven

Suman Ghosh
Feature Narrative
2015/India, USA/1 hr 17 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Soumitra Chatterjee, Arun Mukhopadhyay, Poran Bandopadhay

Rajkahini

Srijit Mukherji
Feature Narrative
2015/India/2 hr 40 min
Bengali with English subtitles
Rituparna Sengupta, Lily Chakraborty, Parno Mitra, Jaya Ahsan, Sudiptaa Chakraborty, Priyanka Sarkar, Sohini Sarkar

Sahib Bibi Aur Goolam (The Drifters)

Pratim Dasgupta
Feature Narrative
2016/India/2 hr
Bengali with English subtitles
Anjan Dutt, Swastika Mukherjee, Ritwick Chakraborty

Sujata

Bimal Roy
Feature Narrative
1959/India/2 hr 41 min
Hindi with English subtitles
Nutan, Sunil Dutt, Shashikala, Lalita Pawar, Tarun Bose, Sulochana Latkar, Asit Kumar Sen

The River of Fables

Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 58 min
Assamese with English subtitles
Adil Hussain, Seema Biswas

The Silence

Gajjendra Ahire
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 31 min
Marathi with English subtitles
Raghuvir Yadav, Nagraj Manjule, Anjali Patil

The Threshold

Pushan Kripalani
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 27 min
Hindi, Punjabi, and English
Rajit Kapoor, Neena Gupta

Tiladaanam (The Rite, a passion)

K.N.T. Sastry
Feature Narrative
2002/India/1 hr 29 min
Telugu with English subtitles
H. G. Dattatraya, Jaya Seal, Brahmaji, Thanikella Bhavani, Attili

U Turn

Pawan Kumar
Feature Narrative
2016/India/2 hr
Kannada with English subtitles
Roger Narayan, Shraddha Srinath, Dileep Raj

Waiting

Anu Menon
Feature Narrative
2015/India/1 hr 30 min
Hindi/English
Naseeruddin Shah, Kalki Koechlin

White Nights

Razi Muhammed
Feature Narrative
2015/India/2 hr 10 min 28 sec
Malayalam with English subtitles

About the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC):

The Indo-American Arts Council is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian Sub-Continental and cross-cultural art forms in North America. The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding. Our focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from the Indian Sub-Continent to exhibit, perform and produce their works here.

About the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF):

The New York Indian Film Festival is the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States. It is dedicated to showcasing, promoting and building an awareness of Independent, art house and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent. Our mission is to encourage filmmakers to tell their stories, to educate North America about them and their talent and to facilitate the making and distribution of these films. NYIFF boasts eight days of premiere screenings of feature, documentary & short films, industry panels, special events, retrospectives, red carpet galas, an award ceremony, packed audiences and amazing media coverage.

***

THE 16th ANNUAL NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES OPENING NIGHT GALA FILM
Festival also reveals centerpiece and closing films  

The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) announced the Opening Night Gala film: Bardroy Baretto's Nachom-ia Kumpasar (Let's Dance to the Rhythm). LET'S DANCE TO THE RHYTHM is a Konkani feature film- a tribute to Goan music and her musicians. Narrated through the emotional rollercoaster of a love story destined to tragedy, it celebrates Goan music through the eyes of its eclectic's generation of musicians in the 1960s and 70s.

"Lets Dance to the Rhythm is a beautiful representation of another era, where jazz music flourished outside of the realms of the popular Hindi cinema of Bombay. The film is a joyful celebration of the music, the energy and the musicians and it is a story that not many people know about, states Film Festival Director Aseem Chhabra. "It is truly a happy film and a perfect way for us to launch the 16th edition of the New York Indian Film Festival." 

The festival is widely recognized as the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States, showcasing some of the greatest talents working in the diaspora. Celebrating its 16th year, NYIFF will run May 7 to 14 at a variety of prestigious New York City venues, including the Skirball Center for Performing Arts, where the opening and closing films are set to take place.

In addition, the centerpiece and closing films were announced. Renowned filmmaker Hansal Mehta will be closing the festival with his latest work, ALIGARH. Director Mehta provides a look into the real life incident of Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, who was suspended from his job because of his sexual orientation. Siras was the professor of Marathi at the Aligarh Muslim University. After successfully appealing his suspension, he died under suspicious circumstances. 

HIGHWAY will be featured as the centerpiece film. Umesh Kulkarni's HIGHWAY is a Marathi film set on the Bombay-Pune Highway and it examines diversity and soul searching.

Aroon Shivdansani, Executive Director and Artistic Director of IAAC states "The excitement is growing as our festival approaches! Our flagship event, NYIFF 2016 is proving to be even more exciting than last year!" She adds "The recently announced Indian National Awards included both our 2015 Opening & Closing Night films as well as five films from our current schedule. This year our festival has grown in the number of days, the number of films screened, as well as the depth and variety of themes and languages. Three theatres will screen films simultaneously all day for 8 days with films from all over India and the subcontinent representing myriad regional languages (with English subtitles) while the fourth theatre will entice audiences with fascinating panels on LGBT, Regional Language Cinema, Directors' First Films, Animation, Industry Panels on Shooting in NYCity & NYState as well as Special Events such as the presentation of films from three generations of filmmakers in the Bimal Roy/Basu Bhattacharya family. Guests to our Opening & Closing Night Galas will be welcomed by amazing local dancers, while filmmakers & celebrities walk off the red carpets to glamorous cocktail parties prior to the reality screenings."

The full line-up of screenings and events will be announced April 10, 2016. 

For IAAC Membership and NYIFF Tickets: 
Celebrating its 16th year, NYIFF will run May 7 to May 14. Memberships may be purchased at:http://www.iaac.us/Contribution.htm

Festival Passes and Individual Tickets are on sale at the film festival website: http://www.iaac.us/NYIFF2016

About the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC):
The Indo-American Arts Council is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian Sub-Continental and cross-cultural art forms in North America. The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding. Our focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from the Indian Sub-Continent to exhibit, perform and produce their works here. 

About the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF):
The New York Indian Film Festival is the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States. It is dedicated to showcasing, promoting and building an awareness of Independent, art house and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent. Our mission is to encourage filmmakers to tell their stories, to educate North America about them and their talent and to facilitate the making and distribution of these films. NYIFF boasts eight days of premiere screenings of feature, documentary & short films, industry panels, special events, retrospectives, red carpet galas, an award ceremony, packed audiences and amazing media coverage.

OPENING NIGHT GALA
Saturday May 7, 2016 at 6 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC
Let's Dance to The Rhythm
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2014/2 hr 36 min
Directed by Bardroy Baretto
Cast: Vijay Maurya, Palomi Ghosh, Prince Jacob

CENTERPIECE
Tuesday May 10, 2014 at 6:30 pm at Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave & 12th Street, NYC
Highway
US PREMIERE
India/2015/ 2 hr 17 min
Directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni
Cast: Mukta Barve, Sunil Barve, Tisca Chopra

CLOSING NIGHT
Saturday May 14, 2016 at 5 pm at Skirball Center for Performing Arts, NYC
Aligarh
NEW YORK PREMIERE
India/2015/114 min
Directed by Hansal Mehta
Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Rajkummar Rao