Hindi
‘Miss Lovely’ bags the top prize at 11th IFFLA Fest in LA
NEW DELHI: Ashim Ahluwalia‘s feature Miss Lovely bagged the Grand Jury Prize while Nitin Kakkar‘s Filmistaan received the top Audience Award at the 11th annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA).
Ship of Theseus by Anand Gandhi received Honourable Mention from the Grand Jury for features in the concluding ceremony, which ended with the screening of the Los Angeles premiere of Deepa Mehta‘s Midnight‘s Children based on Salman Rushdie‘s novel.
The short film Tatpaschat by Vasudev Keluskar also won an Honourable Mention from the Grand Jury.
The documentary Beyond All Boundaries by Sushrat Jain and the short film Unravel by Meghna Gupta not only won the best Grand Jury awards in their categories, but also the Audience prizes.
This year, the festival showcased more than 35 film features, documentaries, and short films at ArcLight Hollywood, home of IFFLA since its inception. "The awards are always bittersweet for all of us in the programming team as we truly believe in the exceptional talent and relevance of each film which has been so carefully chosen," said lead programmer Terrie Samundra. "That being said, we wholeheartedly share the enthusiasm of the audience and our prestigious jury. A huge congratulations to the winners!"
The 2013 feature film jurors were International Director of the Feature Film Programme at the Sundance Institute Paul Federbush, director/editor/writer Kanika Myer (Halo, Heart of India), and assistant curator of Film Programmes at Los Angeles County Museum of Art Bernardo Rondeau.
The Best Documentary Award was decided by The Hollywood Reporter and Los Angeles Times film critic Sheri Linden, Senior Programmer at Film Independent Maggie Mackay, and Producer Nadine Mundo (Chelsea Settles).
Judging the short films were filmmaker and IFFLA alumni Prashant Bhargava (Patang), film curator and director of Industry Programming at Palm Springs ShortFest Kathleen McInnis, and actress Sheetal Sheth (ABCD, Looking for comedy in the Muslim World).
Miss Lovely, described as the "most hard-hitting film in the festival" by feature jury spokesperson Rondeau, is the story of two brothers caught in the grimy world of sub-Bollywood soft porn in the 1980s.
Beyond All Boundaries follows three cricket players from poor backgrounds whose love of the game becomes a microcosm of India‘s national obsession with the British import.
Filmistan is the story of a Hindu man, accidentally taken prisoner in Pakistan, who forms a bond with his captors based on a shared love for Bollywood music dramas.
Christina Marouda, who founded this festival eleven years earlier and is now working as director of development at New York‘s Museum of the Moving Image, also credited the mentorship of older independent stalwarts such as director Anurag Kashyap, whose gangster drama Gangs of Wasseypur opened the festival last week, and supportive producer Guneet Monga, honoured this year along with cable television executive Bela Balaria at the Festival‘s Sixth Annual Industry Leadership Awards.
In addition to the many independent films on view, the festival this year also screened the blockbuster Tamil-language fantasy film Eega and the animated adventure Arjun the Great, a co-production between India‘s UTV and The Walt Disney Co.
Although the festival has become an essential stop for producers and directors of challenging personal films, one of its most popular features always has been the "Bollywood by Night" sidebar, an ongoing tribute to mainstream Hindi music dramas. This year, "Bollywood by Night" was a five-film tribute to the late producer director Yash Chopra, who died in 2012.
Hindi
Shekhar Suman opens acting academy in Mumbai
The veteran actor-presenter launches SSFA, promising immersive, mentorship-led training for aspiring actors and storytellers
Mumbai: Forty years in front of the camera, and Shekhar Suman still isn’t done. The actor, host, writer and director, one of Indian entertainment’s most restless polymaths, is now training his sights on the next generation, launching the Shekhar Suman Film Academy (SSFA) in Mumbai on 22nd April 2026. Registrations for the inaugural batch are already open.
SSFA pitches itself squarely against formula-driven acting schools, leading with an intensive three-month programme that Suman says he personally designed and will largely conduct himself. The curriculum blends voice and speech work, emotional access, body awareness and camera technique with the Linklater Voice Method, film language and on-set discipline, and rounds off with a student film, giving trainees their first taste of a real set.
Masterclasses with actors, casting directors and filmmakers sit alongside the core course. The academy is conceived as a platform that will eventually sprawl into screenwriting, direction, cinematography, music production and post-production: a full creative ecosystem rather than a single acting school.
“For me, this academy is not just an institution. It is a very personal way of giving back to the craft that has given me everything,” said Suman. “Over the years, acting has taught me discipline, imagination, resilience, and the importance of truth in performance. Through this academy, I hope to create something that goes beyond training and becomes a true creative journey for every student who walks in.”
Behind the scenes, the academy is backed by GBM Studios. Dharmesh Sangani, founder and visionary, is the driving force, bringing what the academy describes as “a focused approach to creating meaningful opportunities within the industry.” Adhyayan Suman, founder and director and Shekhar’s son, adds a performer’s perspective honed across acting, music and direction. Ekant Babani, partner and chief operating officer, handles strategy and operations.
Entry is deliberately low-barrier. No prior training is needed: applicants sit a basic self-audition test, shifting the focus firmly to potential rather than polish. The academy says it aims to stay accessible while delivering a premium, hands-on experience.
In a country where acting schools multiply almost as fast as OTT platforms, Suman’s personal stamp and his willingness to stand in the room and teach may be the sharpest edge SSFA has. For those ready to test that promise, the curtain is already up. Apply at shekharsumanfilmacademy.com
