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Hugely anticipated, Eros International and Hansal Mehta’s ‘Aligarh’, opened the Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival with Star India in a packed screening at Regal, Colaba tonight. This pivotal film marked the first time that a Hindi film opened the festival since 1997, the inaugural year of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.
The film’s stars Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkumar Rao and director Hansal Mehta walked the red carpet, followed by personalities such as Vidya Balan, Siddharth Roy Kapoor, Smita Thackeray, Ava DuVernay and Christina Voros among others. The film received tremendous response from the delegates.
Set in a small town in Uttar Pradesh ‘Aligarh’, is the story of a professor (Manoj Bajpayee) fired from his job because of his sexual preferences. A young journalist (Rajkummar Rao) tells his story to the world. Based on true events, the film follows Dr. S R Siras, a professor at the Aligarh Muslim University who, when discovered to be homosexual, was fired unceremoniously. The film depicts the unlikely friendship between Dr. Siras and a reporter investigating his first big story. It unfolded into a relationship that changed both their lives.
National Award winning director, Hansal Mehta, said
“Be it at the prestigious Busan film festival, or BFI, London, ‘Aligarh’ has been given standing ovations & has won overall applause. The audience at JioMAMI has similarly applauded the film for it’s sensitive storyline & focus on current prejudices that are impacting Indian society. Here at home, ‘Aligarh’ built a special connect. We as the team that has worked diligently on the film feel gratified, and are very grateful for the consistent support that Eros International gave us in this journey.”
Producer Sunil Lulla, Managing Director, Eros International further added,
“Aligarh is a film that mirrors the challenges of real life. At Eros we believe in supporting content-driven, high quality cinema and that is exactly what Hansal has delivered through this film. We are very happy with the positive reactions at the premiere last night and we are looking forward to take this film to audiences worldwide very soon”.
The Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival with Star India will be held in Mumbai from October 29th to November 5th 2015.
