Indian Film Festival of Melbourne: Aishwarya Rai hoists Indian flag, Sushant Singh Rajput wins Best Actor

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) kicked off on 10 August, and many of Bollywood’s stars were present at the event.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Karan Johar, Malaika Arora, Rajkummar Rao, Shilpa Shetty, Sushant Singh Rajput, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rahul Bose and Simi Garewal were some of the celebrities that graced the event.

Aishwarya along with her daughter Aaradhya hoisted the Indian flag during the festival ahead of India’s 70th Independence Day, with Aishwarya calling it “a moment of pride and happiness ". They then reportedly went on to sing the Indian national anthem_._

Actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who had been a back-up dancer in IIFM’s 2006 edition talked about how far he’s come in his journey, from being a dancer to winning the Best Actor award for the biopic MS Dhoni: The Untold Story.

Other winners from the night were Konkona Sen Sharma’s Lipstick Under My Burkha which was awarded the Best Film, with the Konkona winning the Best Actress award.  Dangal  director Nitesh Tiwari also bagged the Best Director award for his super hit film.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was felicitated with Excellence in Global Cinema Award at this year’s IFFM.