Peepli Live heads to Melbourne Film Festival

Helmed and written by Anusha Rizvi in her first directorial venture,the film is a satire on the farmers’ suicides and subsequent media and political response in the country. Bhowmick said that Aamir Khan,who has produced the film, will specially fly down here to promote it during the festival.

“With Peepli Live the way we are trying to position the film is that its being positioned more as a World Cinema rather than a Bollywood film. Thats what we are following here,” said Lange.

The festival has formed the special category ‘Not Quite Bollywood’ that will offer a selection of Indian cinema that rejects the glitz and glam of traditional Bollywood fare. Peepli Live stars Omkar Das Manikpuri,Raghubir Yadav,Nawazuddin Siddiqui,Naseeruddin Shah and Malaika Shenoy in the main roles.

The film is expected to hit the theatres managed by Hoyts which looks after 450 screens in Australia but Lange’s production company is also working hard to tie up with art houses across the city to showcase the film.

“We are in talks with art houses like Cinema Nova,Palace which are the loyal followers of world class cinemas,” Lange said adding that film was a unique in its own with a universal language that was surely to impress cinema lovers across the world,” she said.

According to a program guide of MIFF 2010,director Anusha Rizvi and the other stars in the film will be present alongside Aamir for a special gala screening of Peepli Live.

The festival is an iconic event with films from over 50 countries to be screened over a period of 17 days.