New hits such as “Newton,” “Secret Superstar,” “Toilet” and “Padman” among films to be screened.
The AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD, is hosting a Bollywood film festival featuring recent hit movies and highlighting current trends, rising stars, veteran performers and topical touchstones in popular Indian cinema.
The festival is being organized by AFI Silver in collaboration with Montgomery County Councilmember Roger Berliner and the Maryland-India Business Roundtable.
Handpicked movies from Bollywood will be screened at the theatre from April 7 to 15. The movies include the political satire Newton, India’s 2018 Oscar selection; box office breakout Secret Superstar; acclaimed social issue comedies Toilet: A Love Story and Padman; and Mukkabaaz. All the films are in Hindi with English subtitles.
The festival’s goal is to introduce new audiences to the largest film industry in the world and also meeting the passion that Indians have for Bollywood movies.
“Watching Bollywood films is not only a favorite hobby of the Indian community but is also a link between them and their Indian roots,” Berliner told The American Bazaar. “This one of a kind film festival, under the leadership of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, will meet the Indian American community’s love for watching mainstream Bollywood films while also introducing the genre to newer audiences.”
AFI and Berliner had organized the screening of Indian American Omi Vaidya’s hit film 3 Idiots and his documentary Big in Bollywood in November last year as a precursor to the festival.
Berliner, who developed an interest in Bollywood movies after watching Aamir Khan-starrer Lagaan, conceived the idea of conducting a film festival to give the Indian American community a chance to watch recent hits and attract a new audience to Bollywood.
The festival idea was finalized after he held talks with Elisha Pulivarti of the MD-India Business Roundtable and executives of the AFI last year.
According to a Pew Research Center analysis of the 2013-2015 American Community Survey, the Washington, DC, area has the fifth largest Indian American population in the nation, numbering 158,000. More than a fourth of the region’s Indian American population lives in Montgomery County.
“Our Indian-American community is one of our most prominent, with Montgomery County being home to nearly 40,000 Indian-Americans,” said Berliner.