Dolly Thakore, Viveck Vaswani join LIFFI line-up

Veteran actress Dolly Thakore and actor-producer Viveck Vaswani will be a part of the Lonavla International Film Festival India (LIFFI), to be held September 1-5.

Thakore will be a jury member, while Vaswani will be a moderator for Q&A sessions post the film's screenings at the festival, where seasoned actor Naseeruddin Shah will reveal the LIFFI trophy.

Interestingly, all awards of the fest are being dedicated in memory of eminent professionals like film editor Renu Saluja, cinematographer V.K. Murthy, music composer Khemchand Prakash and others, Riju Bajaj, the festival director, told IANS.

Also joining the first time gala will be film critic and director Khalid Mohamed as a moderator for the Q&A sessions. There will also be a screening of a documentary that Mohamed made on filmmaker Shyam Benegal.

"I feel extremely obliged and privileged to receive extensive support for LIFFI from Viveck Vaswani, Khalid Mohamed, Dolly Thakore, people who are known to establish some big international film festivals including MAMI," Bajaj said.

LIFFI already has Naseeruddin and Benegal's support apart from names like Ketan Mehta, Sudhir Mishra and Hansal Mehta.

The opening ceremony will see Benegal present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Govind Nihalani, known for his socially relevant films like "Aakrosh" and "Ardh Satya". A retrospective of his films will also be held.

--IANS

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