Prateek Vats' satirical piece 'Eeb Allay Ooo!' kicks off DIFF 2019

The eighth edition of Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) on Thursday opened with the screening of filmmaker Prateek Vats' satirical dramedy "Eeb Allay Ooo!" here.

The movie gala, regarded as an important stop for up-and-coming and indie filmmakers to showcase their work, is being held at Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts.

This year DIFF moves back from Tibetan Children's Village, which served as the official venue for the past three editions.

Vats was present during the screening of the film, which marks his fiction directorial debut. It received an overwhelming response from the audience here.

The Hindi-language film is about a young immigrant who lands a rather unusual government job -- that of mimicking langurs to scare away the monkeys wreaking havoc in and around the Lutyens Delhi area.

"Eeb Allay Ooo!" recently had its India premiere at Jio MAMI 21st Mumbai Film Festival, where it bagged the coveted Golden Gateway award in the India Gold category.

Post the screening, Vats told PTI, "We are very lucky and privileged to have come here with our film. It is a really great environment here at DIFF. It was great that our film was the opening film here."