Ali's Victoria and Abdul and Sayani's The Hungry to be screened at Toronto Film Fest
This is totally grand, TIFF is always known for its select films,\" said Ali Fazal.
Mumbai: Indian film industry has finally earned the global recognition that was long overdue.
After the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited Bollywood A-Listers like Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and a few others to be a part of the prestigious Oscars committee, now actress Sayani Gupta's ‘The Hungry’ and Ali Fazal's ‘Victoria and Abdul’ have been selected as the official entry to the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival'17.
Talking about this extraordinary feat, the ‘Fast & Furious 7’ actor Ali Fazal said, “This is totally grand, TIFF is always known for its select films and that is very interesting to know that we have been selected for that and we are having our world premiere there. The film team is really amazing, with Stephen Frears I think people are always looking forward to his movies.”
Sayani, who has been to the film festival in the past for her films like ‘Margarita with a Straw’ and ‘Parched’, is beaming with happiness. She said, “I'm ecstatic that ‘The Hungry’ has been selected for TIFF. It's an absolute honour being selected for TIFF and is extremely rewarding that this is the third year that my film is premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival after ‘Margarita with a straw’ and ‘Parched’. So it's a hattrick for me! Working with Bornila was like a dream. All along the shooting we (the cast and crew) felt that we were creating something special. She is so young but incredibly sorted, brilliant and completely in control of the craft. It was also a fantastic star cast including Naseer, Tisca, Neeraj Kabi, Suraj Sharma, Antonio, Arjun, Karan Pandit, Savita. But the cherry on the cake has to be working with Naseer on this film. I play his daughter in the film and he really made the coolest father there ever could be! We are all excited with the TIFF premiere and also looking forward it also cause this year its focus is women.”
‘The Hungry’ is a film directed by Bornila Chaterjee and stars Naseeruddin Shah, Sayani Gupta and Tisca Chopra
‘Victoria and Abdul’ is a film directed by Stephen Frears and has Ali Fazal paired opposite Dame Judi Dench. The film is set to release on September 15 in the UK and is produced by Focus Features.