First Pravasi film fest to honour Saeed Jaffrey

The first ever Pravasi Film Festival 2010, starting Jan 3-6, will honour veteran actor Saeed Jaffrey with the lifetime achievement award for his contribution to cinema.

'SaeedJaffrey is one of the most experienced Indian origin actors we have today in the industry. He has done a number of crossover films and this award will be in recognition to his contribution to cinema,' Pankaj Dubey, festival co-director, told IANS here Tuesday.

Jaffrey showed his acting skills in critically-acclaimed films like 'Chashme Buddoor', 'Masoom', 'Mandi', 'Mashaal', 'Saagar', 'Ram Teri Ganga Maili', 'Hero Hiralal', 'Khoon Bhari Maang', 'Eeshwar', 'Ram Lakhan' and 'Dil'.

His credits also include international projects like 'Gandhi', 'The Man Who Would Be King', 'A Passage to India' and 'My Beautiful Laundrette', to name a few, alongside famous TV series 'Tandoori Nights'.

His films -- Nikhila Kaushik's 'Bhavishya - The Future' and Satyajit Ray's 'Shatranj Ke Khiladi' -- will be shown at the fest.

The festival is being organised by the international bi-lingual monthly Pravasi Today in collaboration with the India Habitat Centre (IHC) with the support of the Mauritius High Commission in India.

Around 20 films made by Indians living abroad or outside the country will be showcased at the fest. Some of the films to be showcased are 'Monsoon Wedding', 'New York', '99', 'The President Is Coming' and 'Inner World of Shah Rukh Khan'.

'We are working mainly on the identity issues of the diaspora this year. The idea is to create a single window system for filmmakers of Indian origin who want to connect to the Indian audiences through their work,' said Dubey.

Cinema personalities like Sharmila Tagore, Sohal Ali Khan, Amrita Rao, Manoj Bajpai, Prakash Jha, Satish Kaushik and Adoor Gopalakrishnan are expected to attend the four-day event.