Joseph Mathew-Vargese’s Bombay Summer won the Best Picture Award at the 8th MIAAC New York Film Festival and Tannishta Chatterjee won Best Actress for the same movie. The movie explores the delicate friendship between three sensitive young people in the turmoil of Maximum City. The Award provides further acclamation for Tannishta, best known for her role in Brick Lane. She is currently working with Martin Sheen on Bhopal: Prayer for Rain.
New York-educated actress Deepti Naval, who has appeared in over fifty movies, won the Best Screenplay Award for Two Paise for Sunshine, Four Paise for Rain which stars Manisha Koirala in an unlikely and ground-breaking love affair with a gay man. This is an outstanding role for Manisha, a social activist concerned with the role of women in society and the exploitation often associated with prostitution. She plays the part of an ageing prostitute in the movie who finds solace in the company of Rajit Kapur.
Aasif Mandvi won the Best Actor Award for Today’s Special, a movie set in New York. Mumbai-born American actor and comedian, Aasif, known for his appearances on The Daily Show was actually raised in Bradford, England. He will be playing the role of Admiral Zhao in M Night Shaylaman’s The Last Airbender.
The Festival annually showcases the best in independent Indian and diaspora cinema and this year was visited by celebrities such as Shabana Azmi, Rahul Bose, Mira Nair, Shyam Benegal, Sharmila Tagore and Manisha Koirala. Benegal’s movie Well Done Abba was also shown at the festival as well as the underrated Gulaal.
