The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne is in its 13th year. The festival was officially flagged off by an array of stars of Indian cinema at an iconic landmark venue in Melbourne, Australia earlier today.

The festival is back to being held in person after it was held online for two years. Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Vaani Kapoor, Tamannaah Bhatia, Shefali Shah, singer Sona Mohapatra and filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Kabir Khan, Aparna Sen, Nikkhil Advani, Rithvik Dhanjani and Shoojit Sircar were some of the Bollywood personas who graced the official launch.

Abhishek Bachchan, who is “absolutely loving” being in the moment in Melbourne, can’t wait to watch the screening of his ‘Manmarziyaan’ co-star Taapsee Pannu’s upcoming film ‘Dobaaraa’.

He said, “I’m looking forward to watching ‘Dobaaraa’. My almost entire family has represented India here and I’m very proud of it. I’m looking forward to being part of all the celebrations and I thank the government and Mitu for having me here. It feels great to be given the Leadership in Cinema award”.

The actors took to the podium in presence of a special audience to announce this year’s programme schedule with ‘Dobaaraa’ being the opening night film.

Other events lined up apart from the screening of over 120 films are the Independence Day Celebrations of India and an arrangement of panel discussions amongst other specially curated events.

When asked about the South and Hindi film debate at the festival, actress Tamannaah Bhatia said, “I think this conversation is only unique to India, whenever I travel abroad I never hear people distinguish, they simply call it Indian cinema. And such is the case even here at IFFM.”

She feels that the audience wants to see pan India films as more of such content is being made and being admired by all.

The festival, which kicked off on Friday (August 12), will conclude on August 20.