Rani Mukerji, Vicky Kaushal & others attend The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne; see pics

The Indian Film festival of Melbourne kickstarted earlier today. This year, actors and filmmakers including Rani Mukerji, Rajkumar Hirani, Vicky Kaushal, Freida Pinto, Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal, Abhijaat Joshi, Mrunal Thakur and comedian Saadiya Ali are gracing the event.

The festival started with an opening press conference that took place this morning in Melbourne.Mitu Bhowmick Lange, director of the festival introduced all the actors present at the press conference.

As a start, Rani Mukerji’s Hichki and Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju are being premiered at the film festival. Both films are significant as the former is a comeback-of-sorts film for Rani, considering shestarred in a film after giving birth while the latter is a biopic that made history at the box office. Vicky Kaushal from Sanju was also there to address the media.

At the conference, Rani spoke about being present at the festival and said, "I’m really happy to be here representing my country, my film, and my fraternity. A big Thank you to the Victorian government for supporting the Indian film fraternity The Indian film fraternity is so diverse, So many languages and cultures so it’s great to see films from various cultures under one roof. I thank Mitu inviting me. And this trip is special because I’m coming here with my daughter. It’s the first time she’s seeing Melbourne.”

Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani on his attendance at the festival said, “I’m looking forward to IFFM. Australia is a great country and with Melbourne being such an amazing city, I’m looking forward to meeting people here."

Freida Pinto was also seen among the stars. On her premiere of her next Love Sonia, shesaid, “Love Sonia gives you a glimpse into the world of oval sex trafficking But it still doesn’t show the entire world of it. Also we didn’t want to make a gratuitous film. At the end of the day we want people to to understand the sense of what really happens in this part of the world and how much of it is kept away from us. So as an artist when you get an Opportunity to be part of such a film That can raise a global conversation, it’s fun to adapt to the character but it’s also but More than that you’re raising a very important topic which will leave the audiences with something to ponder on”.

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne will go on from the August 10 to August 22 in Melbourne, Australia.

The festival will screen over 60 films from all across India and the subcontinent in over 22 languages.