Shimit Amin’s Australian-filmed Chak De India has won the Best Film Award at the Sydney ceremony last night. Box office hit Chak de India, directed by Shimit Amin, is a feel good hockey film shot in Melbourne and Sydney starring 90 Australian hockey players and over 9000 Australian extras!
Indian heartthrob Akshaye Khanna has received the Best Performance Award for his role in Gandhi My Father. Feroz Khan’s Gandhi My Father which tells the story of Gandhi’s son, Harilal (Akshaye Khanna), has recently been accepted into competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival and also finds itself in competition for Best Screenplay at the inaugural Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
The awards were announced earlier this evening at the 5th Australian Indian Film Festival Gala Awards held at the Museum of Contemporary Art and were attended by Chak De India director Shimit Amin, lead actresses Sagarika Ghatge and Tanya Abrol and Gandhi My Father director Feroz Khan and Akshaye Khanna.
Australian film critic, Peter Thompson hosted the glamorous evening and Australian actress Isabel Lucas presented the Best Performance Award and Ian Chappell, Special Representative, Australia for UNHCR, announced the award for Best Film.
The awards were chosen by a respected group of Australian film critics including Peter Thompson (Showtime), Margaret Pomeranz (ABC TV At The Movies), Nell Schofield (Channel 9 Sunday Show), Marc Fennell (Triple J), Adrienne McKibbons (Metro Magazine) and Ian Taylor (ABC TV).
The 5th Australian Indian Film Festival opened last night in Sydney with Gandhi My Father and over the next 10 days will showcase the best in Indian cinema at Sydney’s Cinema Paris and Melbourne’s Cinema Nova.
The festival is proud to boast an advisory board comprising of Ronnie Screwvala (UTV Group), Sanjeev Kohli (Yash Raj Films), Simi Gaewal and Natalie Miller (Sharmill Films). Writer and Director Yash Chopra is the Festivals patron.
[release from Limelight PR]