“Saawariya” opens the Indian film festival in New York

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film "Saawariya" opened the five-day South Asian film festival in New York yesterday (8th november). The Film Festival, organised by the Indo-American Arts Council offered a warm welcome to the actors and directors. Some of the notable actors include Mira Nair, Milind Soman and Konkona Sen Sharma. This film festival is claimed to be one of the biggest film festivals of South Asia films outside India. The event is scheduled to showcase over 50 Independent and diaspora films in its five days.

On the closing night of the festival the awards for best film, best director, best actor and actress will be announced. The films that are nominated for the best film category include "Valley of Flowers" directed by Pan Nalin, "Via Darjeeling" directed by Arindam Nandy and "Manorama Six Feet Under" by Navdeep Singh. Rituparno Ghosh for "Dosar" and Buddhadeb Dasgupta for "The Voyeurs" are the nominees for best director.

Milind Soman for "Valley of Flowers", Kay Kay for "Via Darjeeling" and Danny Denzongpa for "Frozen" are the nominees for best actors. Best actress nominees include Konkona Sen Sharma for "Dosar" and Raima Sen for "Manorama Six Feet Under." Directors Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Das Gupta and authors Salman Rushdie and Shashi Tharoor are among the ones that are expected to attend the closing night ceremony.