Chippa, starring Sunny Pawar, to have its North American premiere at the IFFLA 2019

The upcoming Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles will showcase and premiere on the North American continent Safdar Rahman's directorial debut, Chippa, starring child artiste Sunny Pawar.

Filmed in Kolkata, the film features Pawar as the titular 10-year-old character who runs away one night on his birthday in search of his missing father. Along the way, Chippa and his trusty puppy encounter different characters who help them along on their journey.

Chandan Roy Sanyal, Sumeet Thakur, Veer Rajwant Singh and Masood Akhtar are also part of the cast of Chippa.

First-time filmmaker Rahman, in a press release, said of the film's North American premiere, "Chippa is a small film shot in the bylanes of Kolkata by a crew made up of friends and family, and it’s amazing to see it travel the world.

"It’s a really intimate story about the dreams of a kid who lives on a pavement and the flight his imagination takes. I am intrigued to see how audiences outside the country will respond to a story like this."

Chippa, also written by Rahman, is co-produced by Celine Loop, Sushilkumar Agrawal, Rajat Agrawal, and AVT Shankardass. The feature film has been shot by Ramanuj Dutta, who worked on Mukti Bhawan (2017) and Kadvi Hawa (2017).

Manas Mittal has edited the film while Cyrille de Haes has scored the feature.

The 17th edition of IFFLA will be held from 11-14 April.