"The passion is to bring South Asian Cinema"
The Yorkshire Indian Film Festival is in its second year and organisers said members of the “large South Asian community” based in places other than London are the target.
It began on June 27, 2024, and will run until July 2.
The event will see films screened in cinemas in Bradford and Leeds.
Thought to be the largest of its kind in Europe, it showcases feature films, shorts and documentaries.
Event director Cary Rajinder Sawhney MBE said it aimed to “engage with the diverse audiences around Yorkshire – not just in London”.
Featuring six films in its line-up, both the Bradford Alhambra Studio and the Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds are involved in the Yorkshire Indian Film Festival.
Films being shown include Toronto International Film Festival winner Sthal (A Match), which is a debut feature for director Jayant Digambar Somalkar.
It chronicles “the journey of a young woman striving for an education and a brighter future in a patriarchal society, where arranged marriage is presented as the only option for self-betterment”.
Sthal is a subtle yet implicitly powerful drama exploring the joys and tribulations of young people’s lives as they try to challenge the status quo.
Meanwhile, the world premiere of Haider Zafar’s Before Nikkah will be at the Bradford Alhambra Studio.
Set in London, the film follows two British Pakistanis who go on a blind date as they prepare for a prospective arranged marriage.
Initially apprehensive, the date gets off to a bad start.
But fate conspires to keep the couple together for the whole day and as they get to know each other, their experience heralds some unexpected consequences.
The Queen of my Dreams features Pakistani woman Azra living with her white female friend in Toronto, which is worlds apart from her conservative Muslim mother’s traditional values.
When her beloved father suddenly dies on a trip home to Pakistan, Azra finds herself on a flight to Karachi, where she discovers her Bollywood-inspired connection to childhood memories and the truth of her once-liberal mother and father’s 1960s love marriage.
Tight: The World of Indian Bodybuilding, a documentary directed by Elliott Gonzo, is also being screened.
It follows a young bodybuilder from South India and his preparations to be crowned “Mr India”.
According to organisers, the films are in English, Marathi, Urdu, Kannada and Tamil.
Mr Sawhney said it was important to show films that were in “home languages, not just Hindi”.
He said: “The passion is to bring South Asian Cinema, which isn’t Bollywood.
“We picked films that show realistic images of South Asia today – they’re not glamorised.”
Mr Sawhney added that the aim was to “celebrate India and all the neighbouring countries, showing the best of South Asian independent cinema”.
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