Bollywood In The Tiff Limelight

Bollywood stole the limelight at the 34th Toronto International Film Festival.  For the first time, the world’s premier film event will premiere two Bollywood films – “What’s Your Raashee?” and “Dil Bole Hadippa”. Cameron Bailey, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) co-director stated, “You know, last year our audiences launched ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ that went on to win everything (at the Oscars). And this year, we are thrilled to have two Bollywood movies under big banners making their world premiere.”

Anurag Singh’s “Dil Bole Hadippa” and Ashutosh Gowariker’s “What’s Your Rashee” were previewed.
“One, we have an avid audience which comes (only) to see Bollywood films and their stars in town. Two, we want to introduce Bollywood to our audiences that do not know this kind of cinema.” Bailey, who personally selected the two films during his visit to Mumbai in July, said: “These films were in the final stages when I was in Mumbai. These are highly anticipated films and we will be thrilled to see their stars like Rani Mukerji, Priyanka Chopra and Hurman Baweja in town.”

The Bollywood stars rubbed shoulders with George Clooney, Demi Moore, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.  Other big Hollywood names include Nicolas Cage, Sir Ridley Scott, Drew Barrymore, Kevin Spacey, Michael Douglas, Penelope Cruz and Keanu Reeves. Other notable South Asians to make their appearances included actor Abhay Deol, filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Deepa Mehta’s brother Dilip Mehta, and documentary maker Vikram Jayanti. The film festival, ran from September 10 to 19 and featured more than 300 films, including 100 brand-new, from 64 countries.