Toronto International Film Festival 2017: Omerta, Mukkabaaz, The Hungry to be screened

Mumbai: Director Hansal Mehta’s Omerta, Anurag Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz, and Bornila Chatterjee’s The Hungry are the three Indian films that will have their world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). In Omerta, which features Mehta’s perennial favourite Rajkummar Rao, the director recounts the story of infamous British-born terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who kidnapped and murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. “#OMERTA will have its world premier at the Toronto International Film Festival 2017 (#TIFF2017). Congratulations & love to the team!,” Mehta tweeted after the festival unveiled its initial line-up.

#OMERTA will have it's world premier at the Toronto International Film Festival 2017 (#TIFF2017). Congratulations & love to the team! pic.twitter.com/1mv5q3pV1s

— Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) July 25, 2017

Kashyap’s film Mukkebaaz, about a lower-caste boxer struggling to make his mark on the boxing world, is another highly anticipated title at the festival. In The Hungry, Chatterjee has adopted Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy Titus Andronicusto, which unfolds at a big fat Indian wedding. The film features Naseeruddin Shah, Sayani Gupta and Tisca Chopra. All three films will be screened under Special Presentations section, which opens with Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut Lady Bird and closes with Amr Salama’s Sheikh Jackson. Filmmaker Paakhi A Tyrewala exclusively told Firstpost that she was planning to wrap up the shooting of her upcoming Sikkimese film Pahuna, produced by Priyanka and Madhu Chopra’s Purple Pebble Pictures, so that she could file for screening at TIFF. That is why she missed the Pahuna event at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. However, she was unable to complete the film on time. Besides the three Indian titles, Stephen Frears’ Victoria And Abdul, starring Indian actor Ali Fazal alongside Judi Dench, has also been selected at the festival. Some of the most anticipated features to have made it to the festival include Guillermo del Toro’s adult fairy tale The Shape of Water, Alexander Payne’s Matt Damon-starring comedy Downsizing, Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!, George Clooney s Suburbico, and Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Andy Serkis’ directorial debut Breathe, Deniz Gamze Ergven’s Kings and Haifaa Al Mansour’s Mary Shelley, David Gordon Green’s Stronger, about the Boston Marathon bombing, and Hany Abu-Assad’s The Mountain Between Us, starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba, Angelina Jolie’s First They Killed My Father and Craig Gillepsie’s I, Tonya are some of the anticipated titles in Galas 2017 segment. With inputs from agencies.