Ali Fazal, Sudhir Mishra, Arjan Bajwa kick off 9th Jagran Film Festival

After touring 17 cities, the ninth edition of the Jagran Film Festival, which began this June, has finally arrived at its last destination — Mumbai. The four-day festival is being held in the city from 27 to 30 September.

The festival's opening film was the directorial debut of actor Bradley Cooper, titled A Star Is Born (2018), starring Lady Gaga, which had its Indian premiere in the city. The Hollywood film is already touted to be an early Oscar frontrunner. Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra, actors Arjan Bajwa and Vipin Sharma, and actress Ira Dubey watched the opening film with a full house.

Film critic and festival director Mayank Shekhar introduced A Star Is Born and said of the ninth edition of the festival, "It's been a crazy ride, with lots of ups and downs. It has been all worth it, because the movies have been fantastic. We've had 400 plus screenings, we catered to a 50,000 audience, with entries from 116 countries, with the best of cinema across India and internationally.

The first day had the world premiere of The Lift Boy (2018), directed by Jonathan Augustin, which was attended by actor Ali Fazal. Other screenings included Arnab K Middya’s Andarkahini and Nanjunde Gowda’s Hebbet Ramakka (2018) which were screened in Mumbai for the first time. Atanu Ghosh’s Mayurakshi (2017), Abhaya Simha’s Paddayi (2017), Onir’s Kuchh Bheege Alfaaz (2018) were also shown at the festival.

Shekhar added, “Today was day one for Bombay [Mumbai], but day 100 for Jagran Film Festival, well almost. It's been a long journey, but seems the reactions in Bombay for our films in the home of Indian cinema makes it all so worth it. I hope the next three days are just as exciting for everyone as day one was.”

Since June, the Jagran Film Festival has travelled to Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Dehradun, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhopal, Indore, Gorakhpur, Agra, Ludhiana, Hissar, Meerut and Raipur before coming to Mumbai for its grand finale.