Indian Film Festival Aims to Boost NZ–India Screen Ties

If you grew up in a family like mine, where Indian films, their backstories and the nuances of their dialogues were discussed every night at the dinner table, you’d know that Pakeezah is a gem. The scene with the train in the background, the epic dialogue “Aapke paon dekhe, bahut haseen hain. Inhe zameen par mat utariyega, maile ho jayenge” ("I saw your feet; they are very beautiful. Please do not place them on the ground, they will get dirty"), or just the songs – they have made an impact across generations in India.

"Pakeezah was restored by the Film Heritage Foundation and founder director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, has kindly given us the film for the New Zealand audience,"- Festival director Petrina D'Rozario

So, when such a film was set to be screened at the first-ever Indian film festival in New Zealand, I knew this was curated with care, attention and a lot of love for the Indian film industry.

Indian cinema will take centre stage in New Zealand this week, with the Indian Film Festival New Zealand (TIFFNZ) bringing together classic films, contemporary storytelling and some of the industry's well-known names.

Running from 22 to 25 October, the festival will be based in Auckland, with additional screenings in Wellington and Christchurch. Audiences can also look forward to filmmaker discussions, masterclasses and a short film competition, while acclaimed director Anurag Kashyap and veteran actor Waheeda Rehman are expected to make appearances.

Two restored classics, Teesri Kasam and Pakeezah, will bookend the four-day celebration.

Festival director Petrina D'Rozario said this will be the second festival in the world to screen Pakeezah after its been restored. "Pakeezah was restored by the Film Heritage Foundation and founder director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, has kindly given us the film for the New Zealand audience. We are excited to be one of the first audiences to watch this iconic film from 1972. Many of whom may have never seen these films before.”

D'Rozario (in photo), who has worked in the creative industry for almost two decades, says there was anecdotal research suggesting NZ was long overdue for a dedicated Indian film festival.

“So I took up the challenge to set one up. My love for cinema, my profession as a producer and, upon relocating to Christchurch from Mumbai, I worked in the screen sector here in NZ and began to understand that NZ and India have a beautiful screen relationship, with almost 100 films shot on locations in NZ back in the day. A research paper I co-authored, Screen Opportunities 2025, helped me cement the idea of a festival,” she shared with AMC.

The festival will screen 31 films from across India, with a contingent of producers, directors, actors and film critics attending. With 11 languages, including Gujarati, Bengali, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, French, Japanese, Hindi, English, Nepali, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Kumaoni and even a silent film, the festival is celebrating languages and storytelling from across India.

So what went into curating this first-of-its-kind festival?

“Curating films is the soul of any festival. And I give full credit to our programming team. Namrata Joshi, a very senior journalist, film critic and also curator for the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, along with Virat Nehru, also a film critic and an encyclopaedia on Indian cinema, was like a dream team to work with! Our weekly catch-ups around films to watch, why a film should make the list, why one shouldn't, were a masterclass in independent cinema in themselves!” she says, adding that two hours would fly by while they planned, and they would still need more time.

“The process was so transparent, fair and unbiased, and I take pride in being part of this team,” she shares.

The festival will also feature NZ premieres, which means the films haven't had a theatrical or OTT release in New Zealand yet.

“Our world premiere is a short, Isle of the Golden Swan, which has the main cast and crew attending the screening, including the lead actor Prakash Raj,” she said.

The festival was unveiled in June, with Bollywood actors Ali Fazal and Richa Chadha attending the launch, which also featured a special screening of the award-winning film Girls Will Be Girls.

AMC had reported how New Zealand's screen industry has an established global profile, and festival organisers have pointed to co-production and talent exchange as areas of potential growth between the two countries.

The festival will be an excellent window into Indian cinema for many in New Zealand and an attempt to challenge the stereotypes around Indian films in the Western world, where Indian cinema is sometimes seen as representing just one language and one industry.

The festival has something for everyone, from film buffs to serious filmmakers.

“The festival is our effort to introduce regional cinema to the audience in NZ who enjoy festival films. A glimpse into the storytelling that is beyond the song and dance that Indian cinema is stereotyped with. Yes, we love our musicals woven into the narratives, but we also have films that are song-dry!” she explained, adding that, in their first edition, there was a conscious effort to select independent films, with most of the curated films shining a light on female protagonists and strong women-centric roles.

“Our films are reflective of the current times, stories showcasing the changing dynamic of the patriarchy. Change is happening, and our stories are reflecting that,” she says, adding that the consumption of Indian cinema dates back more than 100 years and India produces around 2,800 films a year.

The festival has something for everyone, from film buffs to serious filmmakers.

“The festival is also showcasing Kiwi Indian stories through the short film competition section. As a Kiwi filmmaker, this is an opportunity to build connections and relationships with filmmakers from India. The masterclasses and conversations hosted at the festival are a great way to meet new filmmakers, to get exposed to new styles of filmmaking, to engage in creative conversations,” she says.

This year, the festival will also host a delegation of 19 filmmakers from the UK, USA, Australia and India, which the organisers hope will lead to bigger partnerships in the coming years.

“The festival would be a great addition to the annual cultural calendar of NZ. We would like to see the festival as a high-impact cultural event, building on the India–NZ screen sector relationship, and hopefully more co-productions in the future, which would add to the creative economy of New Zealand,” D'Rozario said.

And while the festival looks to build new connections and collaborations between the two countries, films like Pakeezah are a reminder of the rich cinematic legacy India brings to that relationship.

-Asia Media Centre