Waheeda Rehman: Cinema always had power to bring people and cultures closer
Mumbai, Aug 25 (IANS) Veteran actress Waheeda Rehman, whose classic ‘Teesri Kasam’ is set to open the Indian Film Festival of New Zealand, has said that cinema holds the power to bridge the gap between people and cultures.
The Indian Film Festival of New Zealand will host the screening of ‘Teesri Kasam’, which starred Waheeda Rehman and Raj Kapoor in lead roles, on October 22, 2026.
Talking about the festival, Waheeda Rehman said, “Cinema has always had the power to bring people and cultures closer. I am delighted to see TIFFNZ celebrating the richness and diversity of Indian cinema in New Zealand. ‘Teesri Kasam’ is a film very close to my heart, and I am especially pleased that it will open the festival, allowing a new generation of audiences to discover its timeless story and poetry.”
The film festival spans 3 days and 3 cities, and promises 30 film screenings, industry panels, Q&A post-screenings, networking events, and an awards evening. The first edition will showcase 10 features, 16 shorts, and 4 special screenings. With 11 languages, including Gujarati, Bengali, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, French, Japanese, Hindi, English, Nepali, Kashmiri, Punjabi, and Kumaoni, and even a silent film.
The highlight for the year is celebrating films that have been restored by Film Heritage Foundation and NFAI-NFDC.
Festival director Petrina D’Rozario said, ”For the closing, Pakeezah, which was restored by the Film Heritage Foundation and founder director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, has kindly given us the film for the NZ audience. Our festival would be the second festival in the world to have screened the film after it’s been restored. We are excited to be one of the first audiences to watch this iconic film from 1972. Many of whom may have never seen these films before.”
Petrina D’Rozario added, “TIFFNZ is more than a celebration of Indian cinema; it’s a bridge between India and NZ! Through the festival we want the NZ audience to discover India, and our extraordinary stories to travel to the furthest part of the world. At its heart, TIFFNZ is about bringing people, stories, cultures, languages together through cinema”.
–IANS
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