Golshifteh Farahani to attend IFFI, open to work in Indian films

Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, who is banned in her home country, will visit India in November with her Kurdish movie "My Sweet Pepper Land". She is excited and says if there's space for her, she is ready to work in an Indian film too.

The movie, she told IANS, is due to be screened at Goa's International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which will be held from Nov 20.

"I will be in India for the film festival in Goa next month with 'My Sweet Pepper Land'. It's the first time that I am going to visit the country for a professional reason, otherwise I always come for myself," Golshifteh, who has been visiting India for the past 10 years, said during an interaction here.

In "My Sweet Pepper Land", Golshifteh plays almost a parallel of herself - a fearless, rebellious woman, who teaches children in a village at the borders of Iran, Turkey and Iraq.

For Golshifteh, infamous for being asked to leave Iran after she posed nude for a French magazine, "India is in my heart".

"I generally like to visit the place... I am a big time traveller at heart," added the beauty, who is even game to work in the Indian film industry.

"There's a huge industry in India for films, and when they need an actress, why not? But there are already really beautiful actresses in India and it is very hard to get in. But who knows what destiny will bring to us," said the actress, who has worked with the likes of Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in Hollywood film "Body Of Lies".

She also admires Indian actor Irrfan after watching his performance in Punjabi film "Qissa", which was showcased at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF).

Her movie "My Sweet Pepper Land" was also shown at the ongoing fest Sunday night and it was well-received.

"For me, it is an encouraging thing to see how people have reacted here. I hope it's the same in India," she said.

The film was earlier screened at the Cannes International Film Festival and in the film, she shares screen space with Turkish actor Korkmaz Arslan, who plays her love interest.

He hopes to visit India next month too, provided his other film commitments allow him to do so.

The film's Iraqi-Kurdish director Huner Saleem told IANS here that India is an important place to show their movie in as "it is a very rich country, especially for cinema".