Continuing with our tradition of bringing Bollywood and International Cinema to Norway, this year the 14th edition of the Bollywood Festival was organised from 9th – 16th of September. Apart from having the main events at Lørenskog hus Kino, the movies have also been screened at SF Kino Lillestrøm and Oslo Saga Kino in order to reach a wider audience.
The red carpet was rolled out on 9th of September at Lørenskog hus-kino with several local politicians, bureaucrats and celebrities from Bollywood and Iran gracing the occasion. The political fraternity was mainly represented by Bård Folke Fredriksen, the State Secretary of Culture along with Mayor of Lørenskog Ragnhild Bergheim and. Mr Ponnappan, the Second Secretary at the Embassy Of India in Oslo, Norway also marked his presence. The Bollywood fraternity was largely represented by yesteryear actress Ms. Zeenat Aman and the upcoming promising actress Ms. Huma Qureshi. Actress Mehraveh Sharifina and actor Director Mohammad Sharifina were present on behalf of the Iranian Film Industry to showcase their film ‘My father’s love story’.
The event started with lightening of the lamps by the esteemed dignitaries. That was followed by performances by famous dances groups from Norway and Poland namely ‘Intros Allstar dance group’, ‘Natrang’ and’ Studio 1 dance group’ grooving to the hit musical numbers from Bollywood. After that the award ceremony was commenced where Ms. Zeenat Aman was awarded for her lifetime contribution to the Indian cinema and Ms. Huma Qureshi was awarded as the most promising upcoming actress.
Keeping up with the tradition of encouraging the upcoming talents of Bollywood, this year the festival initiated the Vikas Mohan award in remembrance of late Mr. Vikas Mohan to felicitate and encourage the upcoming talent in the industry. The award was presented by Mr. Amol Vikas Mohan to Mr. Azaan Khan for his directorial debut film ‘Bankster’.
‘Bankster’ an unreleased film was also the opening film at the festival and we at Norway Bollywood Fest were lucky to be amongst the first audience in the world to have an exclusive worldwide premiere screening of the film. The film was screened in presence of director Azaan Khan and the lead cast of the movie, Mr Shahzad Shaikh and Mr Siddhartha Dixit. The Film received standing applause at the end by the audience.
This year has seen a mix of various genres of movies ranging from love stories to biographical films and from action thrillers to historical dramas. A tribute was given to the woman empowerment in the form of movies like Neerja and Akira. Apart from that hoist of other movies from Pakistan and Iran were screened to cater to the taste of a wider audience. An exclusive and free screening of the Salman khan starrer ‘Sultan’ was organised for the refugee kids. A social initiative by the festival.
Keeping in mind the health benefits of our traditional practice of Yoga, a Yoga Health day was observed on Sunday 11th September. On the same evening a Geet and Ghazal evening was organised where a tribute to Ghazal Maestro’s Mehdi Hassan and Jagjit Singh was given by the renowned artists Pallavi Pramod and the music group ‘Seven Eyes’ comprising of British Singer Tanya , Paulo Vinicius on guitar and Shahbaz Hussain on the tabla. The event was loved by all the participants by wanting more of it even after the event. The organizers received several request to extend the evening as they couldn’t get enough of the musical geet and Ghazal night.
The festival is on till Friday 16th September for everyone to discover more of it.
