-Deepak Dua
The 5th edition of Bollywood International Film Festival (BIFF), founded by talented actor Yashpal Sharma and his writer wife Pratibha Suman Sharma, was recently successfully concluded at Veda Kunba theatre in Mumbai. Numerous features, short, animation, documentary films, music videos from various countries were screened in this two-day film festival and many of them won awards. On the first day of the festival, actress Poonam Dhillon, Padmini Kolhapure and actor Deepak Parashar inaugurated the festival.
Many famous artists and filmmakers of the film industry were present on this occasion. Many filmmakers and artists from abroad also participated in this festival.The films screened on the first day included ‘ChalHallaBol’, ‘The Pencil’, ‘Dhadam’, ‘Leer’, ‘Choudhary Saheb’, ‘Bloom’, etc.On the first day, a discussion was also held under ‘Let’s Talk’ with renowned cinematographer Aseem Bajaj and writer Dharmendra Nath Ojha.
The second day of the festival began with the presence of actress Upasana Singh. On this day, many films like ‘Ramnami’, ‘Kaand 2010’, ‘Bhookh’, ‘Water’ were screened, after which a ‘Let’s Talk’ session was organised with filmmaker Avinash Das and theater artist Santosh Jha.After this, the process of giving awards started in which the best films in Indian and foreign categories were awarded.The festival was also supported by the leading OTT app for local languages ‘Stage’, Om Puri Foundation run by late actor Om Puri’s wife Nandita Puri and Pratibha Suman’s Pahal Foundation.The ‘Om Puri Best Actor Award’, instituted this time, was given to actor Manoj Joshi. Actress Seema Bhargav Pahwa was honored for her cinematic achievements.Senior actor Lilliput was also present on this occasion. Amidst colourful programmes, the function was anchored by AlpanaSuhasini and Mona Shah.Festival jury members filmmaker Rajiv Bhatia, actress Vandana Bhatia, film critic Deepak Dua, French actress Marianne Borgo, filmmaker Geetanjali Sinha, Bangladeshi actor Tauquir Ahmed were also honoured.
