Padmaavat', 'Sanju' lead nominations for Indian Film Festival Of Melbourne Awards

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmaavat" and Rajkumar Hirani's "Sanju" will battle it out at this year's Indian Film Festival Of Melbourne awards.

Bhansali's period drama has bagged nominations for best film, best director, best actor, for both Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor, and best actress for Deepika Padukone.

"Padmaavat" is based on the 16th century epic, "Padmavat" by poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi. It featured Shahid as Maharaja Ratan Singh, Ranveer as Sultan Alauddin Khilji and Deepika as Rani Padmaavati.

"Sanju", a biopic on actor Sanjay Dutt, has scored four nominations- best film, best director, best actor for Ranbir Kapoor and best supporting actor for Vicku Kaushal.

Apart from "Padmaavat" and "Sanju", other movies nominated at the awards include "Padman", "Hichki", "Secret Superstar", "Raazi", "Mahanati", "Rangasthalam".

In the race for the best director award is Shoojit Sircar for "October", R. Balki for "Padman", Siddharth P Malhotra for "Hichki", Advait Chandan for "Secret Superstar", Sanjay Leela Bhansali for "Padmaavat", Rima Das for "Village Rockstars", Dipesh Jain for "In the Shadows", Ere Gowda for "Balekempa", Suresh Triveni for "Tumhari Sulu", Meghna Gulzar for "Raazi", Tabrez Noorani for "Love Sonia" and Rohena Gera for "Sir".

This year's competition section at the festival will portray the diversity of Indian cinema.

The best actress category includes Rani Mukherjee for "Hichki", Vidya Balan for "Tumhari Sulu", Alia Bhatt for "Raazi", Bhanita Das for "Village Rockstars", Keerthy Suresh for "Mahanati", Tillotama Shome for "Sir", and Zaira Wasim for "Secret Superstar".

Also nominated in the best actor category are Varun Dhawan for "October", Akshay Kumar for "Padman", Manoj Bajpayee for "In the Shadows", Fahadh Faasil for "The Exhibit and the Eyewitness" and Soumitra Chaterjee for "Mayurakshi".

While Kaushal has bagged a best actor in a supporting role nomination for portraying Sanjay's friend in the biopic, he will be joined by Ranvir Shorey for "In the Shadows", Samantha Akkineni for "Mahanati", Richa Chadha and Freida Pinto for "Love Sonia",Trimala Adhikari for "Garbage" and Meher Vij for "Secret Superstar".

Films nominated in the best indie category are "In the shadows", "Village Rockstars", "Balekempa", "Up, Down and Sideways (Documentary)", "Murakshi", "Garbage", "Sir", "Love Sonia".

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne jury members consists of notable directors, writers, actors and editors from India and Australia, namely Simi Garewal, Sue Maslin, Jill Bilcock, Andrew Anastaisos, Nikhil Advani and Geoffrey Wright.