Bollywood film fest to be held in Australia

A two-day conference and film festival will be held in the Australian city of Newcastle to celebrate and explore the Mumbai-based Indian film industry.

Organised by the University of Newcastle, the Bollywood 101 Film Festival will be opened by the consul general of India in Sydney, Arun Kumar Goel, on Feb 20.

The fest will include film screenings and presentations from film producers, while the Bollywood and its other conference at the University of Newcastle will take place Feb 21.

The fest will host a variety of speakers, including Indian-Australian filmmaker Anupam Sharma.

Filmmaker Vikrant Kishore and Susan Kerrigan, from the university, are the conference convenors.

"Bollywood has successfully transcended the confines of India, urging scholars to discuss its global histories," Kishore said in a statement.

Australian High Commissioner Patrick Suckling welcomed this initiative, saying that during recent trips to Mumbai and Hyderabad he had been struck by the keen interest of Indian filmmakers in filming in Australia, which is the country partner at the annual Mumbai film conference, FICCI Frames 2014.

"In meetings with senior representatives of the film industry, there was unanimous enthusiasm for doing more with Australia, whether by using Australia's world famous locations or cooperating in post-production, including high-end technology such as animation, sound-effects and computer graphics," said Suckling.