"It is wonderful that the festival is expanding so rapidly in stature and reach."
The sixth year of the London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) has returned for 2015.
Showcasing an incredible array of independent films hailing from South Asia, LIFF continues to be a forerunner of Asian cinema in the West.
Newly sponsored by the Bagri Foundation, LIFF will take place between July 16 and 23, 2015 across a number of prestigious venues in London including ICA, BFI Southbank, Cineworld Haymarket, Wembley, Wood Green, Wandsworth and the O2.
For the first time in the festival’s history, special screenings of the independent films will also take place in Britain’s second city, Birmingham, at Cineworld Broad Street and the Midlands Arts Centre (mac).
Speaking about the expansive move, Executive and Programming Director of LIFF, Cary Rajinder Sawhney says: “It is wonderful that the festival is expanding so rapidly in stature and reach, proving there is an untapped market for Indian independent cinema with UK audiences.”
The opening night film of LIFF will be Umrika, written and directed by Prashant Nair. Starring Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi) and Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel) the film has already won the Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Excited about the UK Premiere of Umrika, Prashant Nair said:
“We’ve heard such great things about the audiences at LIFF and can’t wait to share our film with them.”
There will be a special screen talk by the acclaimed Indian director, Mani Ratnam at BFI Southbank, who will be recalling some of his directorial greats such as Bombay, Dil Se and O Kadhal Kanmani.
The grand finale of LIFF will be Sam Collins’ cricket documentary, Death of a Gentleman. It features big names of the cricketing world including Ravi Shastri, Kevin Pietersen, Lalit Modi, N Srinivasan and Giles Clarke. Director Collins says:
“This is a very human story about passion, money and power, and we hope to make a persuasive case to cricket fans and non cricket fans alike that the greatest game in the world needs to change its ways.”
Here is the full programme of films and activities for the sixth annual London Indian Film Festival, 2015:
- LONDON
UMRIKA (Hindi with English subtitles) | OPENING NIGHT | UK PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: 16 July, 18:00, Cineworld Haymarket
Dir. Prashant Nair with Suraj Sharma, Tony Revolori, Adil Hussain, Smita Tambe, Prateik Babbar.
THE MASTER: SHYAM BENEGAL (Hindi, English with English subtitles)| UK PREMIERE | (U)
Showing: 17 July, 18:15, BFI Southbank
Dir. Khalid Mohamed.
DHANAK (RAINBOW) (Hindi with English subtitles)| UK PREMIERE | (PG)
Showing: 17 July, 18:30 Cineworld Wood Green | 19 July, 15:00, ICA | 22 July, 19:00, Cineworld Wandsworth
Dir. Nagesh Kukunoor with Krrish Chhabria, Hetal Gada, Vipin Sharma, Suresh Menon, Vijay Maurya.
TIGERS (Urdu, English, German, with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: 17 July, 18:30, Cineworld Haymarket | 19 July, 19:00, Picturehouse Central
Dir. Danis Tanovic with Emraan Hashmi, Danny Huston, Geetanjali Thapa, Maryam D’Abo.
ASHA JAOAR MAJHE (LABOUR OF LOVE) (Bengali with English subtitles) | (U)
Showing: 17 July, 18:15, ICA | 18 July, 20:40, BFI Southbank
Dir Aditya Vikram Sengupta with Ritwick Chakraborty, Basabdutta Chatterjee.
Q&A with Aditya Vikram Sengupta is sponsored by DESIblitz.com
M CREAM (Hindi, English with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: 18 July, 16:30, ICA | 22 July, 19:00, Cineworld Wembley
Dir. Agneya Singh with Imaad Shah, Ira Dubey, Tom Alter, Auritra Ghosh, Beatrice Ordeix.
Q&A with special guests sponsored by DESIblitz.com
GOUR HARI DASTAAN: THE FREEDOM FILE (Hindi with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: 18 July, 17:40, BFI Southbank | 19 July, 18:00, Cineworld Wembley
Dir. Ananth Narayan Mahadevan with Vinay Pathak, Konkona Sen Sharma, Tannishtha Chatterjee.
MONSOON (English, Malayalam, Assamese, Marathi, Hindi with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: 20 July, 18:45, Picturehouse Central | 21 July, 19:00, Cineworld O2
Dir. Sturla Gunnarson with Moushumi Chatterjee, the Prasad family.
KAAKKAA MUTTAI (THE CROW’S EGG) (Tamil with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (U)
Showing: 18 July, 18:30, Cineworld Wandsworth | 19 July, 17:30, BFI Southbank
Dir. M. Manikandan with Ramesh, Vignesh and Iswarya Rajesh.
MEET THE PATELS (English) | EUROPEAN PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: 18 July, 19:00, Cineworld Wembley | 22 July, 20:45, BFI Southbank
Dir. Geeta Patel, Ravi Patel with the Patel family.
COURT (Marathi with English Subtitles) | SPECIAL PREVIEW | (12A)
Showing: 20 July, 18:30, Cineworld Haymarket | 21 JULY, 20:00, Cineworld Haymarket
Dir. Chaitanya Tamhane with Vivek Gomber, Vira Sathidar, Geetanjali Kulkarni.
NACHOM-IA KUMPASAR (Romi Konkani with English Subtitles) | INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: 18 July, 20:00, Cineworld Haymarket | 20 July, 19:00, Cineworld Wembley
Dir. Bardroy Barretto with Vijay Maurya, Palomi Ghosh, Prince Jacob, John D’Silva, Meenacshi Martins.
HARAAMKHOR (THE WRETCHED) (Hindi with English subtitles) | EUROPEAN PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: 19 July, 15:00, Cineworld O2 | 21 July, 18:45, Picturehouse Central
Dir. Shlok Sharma with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shweta Tripathi, Trimala Adhikari.
KHWADA (OBSTACLE) (Marathi with English subtitles) | INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: 19 July, 18:00, ICA | 20 July, 19:00, Cineworld O2
Dir. Bhaurao Karhade with Shashank Shende, Anil Nagarkar, Bhau Shinde.
ONE CRAZY THING (English) | SPECIAL PREVIEW | (15)
Showing: 21 July, 19:00, Cineworld Wembley
Dir. Amit Gupta with Ray Panthaki, Daisy Bevan, Dan Skinner.
SARI RAAT (ALL NIGHT) (Hindi with English subtitles) | EUROPEAN PREMIERE | (U)
Showing: 17 July, 20:00, Cineworld Wembley | 19 July, 16:30, Picturehouse Central
Dir. Aparna Sen with Konkona Sen Sharma, Anjan Dutt, Ritwick Chakraborty.
NIRBASHITO (BANISHED) (Bengali With English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: 21 July, 20:00, BFI Southbank | 22 July, 19:00, Cineworld Wood Green
Dir. Churni Ganguly with Churni Ganguly, Raima Sen, Saswata Chatterjee.
31ST OCTOBER (Hindi, Punjabi with English Subtitles) | WORLD PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: 18 July, 18:00, Picturehouse Central | 20 July, 19:00, Cineworld Wandsworth
Dir. Shivaji Lotan Patil with Soha Ali Khan, Vir Das.
THE LAST ADIEU (Hindi, English with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: 20 July, 19:00, Cineworld Wood Green | 22 July, 18:15, ICA
Dir. Shabnam Sukhdev.
MANI RATNAM | SCREEN TALK | JULY 19
Celebrated Indian director, Mani Ratnam will be present for a special screen talk discussing his biggest film successes at BFI Southbank.
NEPAL CHARITY EVENT WITH MANISHA KOIRALA | SCREENING BOMBAY (12) | JULY 21
Actress Manisha Koirala will be joined by director Mani Ratnam for a special charity gala in aid of the devastating Nepal earthquake. Guests will also have a chance to watch a special screening of Ratnam and Koirala’s Bollywood classic, Bombay.
DEATH OF A GENTLEMAN (English) | CLOSING NIGHT | LONDON PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: 23 July, 18:00, BFI Southbank
Dir. Sam Collins with Kevin Pietersen, Ravi Shastri, N. Srinivasan, Lalit Modi, Giles Clarke.
- BIRMINGHAM
The following films from LIFF 2015 will also be screened in Birmingham:
ASHA JAOAR MAJHE (LABOUR OF LOVE)
Showing: 20 July, 18:30, Cineworld Broad Street | 21 July, 20:00, MAC Cinema Cannon Hill Park
Q&A with Aditya Vikram Sengupta is sponsored by DESIblitz.com
M CREAM
Showing: 21 July, 18:00, Cineworld Broad Street
Q&A with special guests sponsored by DESIblitz.com
MONSOON
Showing: 22 July, 19:00, Cineworld Broad Street | 23 July, 20:00, MAC Cinema Cannon Hill Park
DHANAK (RAINBOW)
Showing: 23 July, 18:30, Cineworld Broad Street | 25 July, 18:00, MAC Cinema Cannon Hill Park
KAAKKA MUTTAI (THE CROW’S EGG)
Showing: 24 July, 14:00, MAC Cinema Cannon Hill Park
KHWADA (OBSTACLE)
Showing: 26 July, 15:00, MAC Cinema Cannon Hill Park
LIFF 2015 promises to be an incredible mix of independent and documentary films that celebrate every aspect of South Asian lifestyle and culture.
Film buffs will not want to be anywhere other than London this July 2015, for the highly anticipated London Indian Film Festival.
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