The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards (IFFM) kickstarted on Friday i.e 10th August and Rani Mukerji received the Best Actress award for her stellar performance as a teacher suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome in ‘Hichki’. The actress, who has been working in the industry for over two decades, was also honoured with ‘Excellence In Cinema’ award. Actress Simi Garewal gave away the honour to Rani.
On getting the award Rani said, “Indian Film Festival of Melbourne has always welcomed the best of Indian cinema and celebrated our form of storytelling. I feel very proud and thankful that Hichki has been accepted and loved by audiences here. It’s a story with universal resonance, and it’s spirit of positivity has won over Indians and locals here. I am also grateful for winning the Best Actress Award and sincerely thank everyone for applauding my performance. I have found this film festival a vibrant and progressive setting for cinema and its impact beyond languages and cultures. I thoroughly enjoyed being in Melbourne and hope to travel with my films here in the near future.”
IFFM had an expert jury that includes Andrew Anastasios, Jill Bilcock, Geoffrey Wright, Nikkhil Advani, Rajeev Masand, Simi Garewal, and Sue Maslin.
Rajkumar Hirani won the Best Director award for Sanju, while the IFFM Vanguard Award was bagged by Ranbir Kapoor. Vicky Kaushal won the supporting actor honour for his role as Kamli in ‘Sanju’, and Richa Chadha won the supporting actress award for her role as a brothel owner in ‘Love Sonia’.
The festival will come to an end on August 22. Rani got the honour of hoisting the Indian National Flag at the Federation Square in Melbourne in the presence of Indian and Australian students, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and IFFM director Mitu Lange. The Indian National Anthem was playing in the background and after the flag hoisting everyone said ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.
