UK Asian Film festival, now in its 26th year, is one of the oldest and most prestigious film festivals of South Asian cinema in UK.
The award was received on behalf of the film by Ms. Manpreet Kaur Singh journalist and broadcaster at SBS, who was one of the on screen talent in the film talking about Bollywood in Australia. Ms. Singh’s statement about how Bollywood has become Australian “from something foreign to one of our own” warmly ends the feature length film about Australia’s 89-year-old love affair with Indian cinema and the soft power of India cinema.
(Note: SBS was not a part of this film and Ms. Singh appeared in her private capacity as a Community Leader and leading media professional of Indian community in Australia)
Brand Bollywood Downunder opened in over 39 screens in Australia in November last year to positive reviews by David Stratton, Barry Hill, Caroline Russo, Alicia Vrajlal and others. The release also featured parliamentary red-carpet screenings in federal and state parliaments followed by discussions on Australian India film links and power of cultural diplomacy around Australia.
The film started its international journey as the official selection at International Film Festival of India by Government of India in Goa in November 2024.
Produced by Claire Haywood, Deepti Sachdeva, and Anupam Sharma, Directed by Anupam Sharma, and Written by Anupam Sharma and Karin Steininger the film was edited by Karin Steininger well known for editing Oscar and Emmy winning feature documentary “Anne Frank Remembered” Design was by Nick Gossain, Supervising DOP was Casimir Dickson with Rob Sarroff and Derek Allan from ZIG ZAG Post handling final sound and vision. Music was by Burkhart, Dimitri, and Brett Applin well known for some well known feature credits amongst them and individually which include The Truman Show . Well known Indian music stars Salim Sulaiman composed the grand Bollywood finale for the film which was sung by Arijit Singh the 3rd most streamed artist on the planet in 2023, according to Spotify.
Australian theatrical distribution was by Forum Films and Pivot Pictures handling non theatrical in ANZ.
The film was funded with support from Screen Australia’s Producer Offset program and private investment from JMC Co (Jacqui Miller Charlton) in UK, Rochime (Meit Shah) from USA and Cutting Edge Pictures India (Billoo Sandhu) as Executive Producers along with well known producers Lisa Duff and Janine Barnes from Australia as EPs on the project.
