Jagran Fest kicks off, Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur do the honours

Mumbai: The fourth `Jagran` Film Festival commenced here with the screening of an international cinematic project `Water` which also marked its Asian premiere.

`Water` is a unique project made by filmmakers from the conflict zone of Israel and Palestine and tells seven stories with seven short films. The six-day festival kicked off last evening at the Fun Republic Cinema in Andheri, with actors Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur (of `The Lunch Box` fame) lighting the lamp. The other films screened on the opening day of the festival were: Haco Cheko`s Turkish film `Nowhere Li Vir`, Sanjay Jadhav`s Marathi film `Duniyadari`, Kundan Shah`s classic `Jane Bhi Do Yaaron`. Speaking on the occasion, Akshay said that he felt good as an outsider to have gained acceptance in the industry. "I am thankful to the people of this industry for giving me a chance and accepting me. Whenever I get a chance to attend a festival which shows all kind of films I catch upon it I feel is a great and important thing. I do follow world cinema as much as I can be it Korean, Israelian or Hollywood films," he said. Currently, Akshay is busy promoting his upcoming film `Boss` and is quite excited about it. "I am playing a Haryanvi character and no one has played this kind of a character (Haryanvi) ever in Hindi films. Also, I was drawn to the relationship between a father and a son in this film which is played by Mithun Sir and me respectively," he added. Nimrat Kaur said she is quite happy that `The Lunch Box` got such a good response. "It feels good to see such an encouraging response. The film is small in nature and yet people loved it so it feels great," she said. The actress seems surprised that the film was one of the strong contenders for India`s official entry but it was Gujarati film `The Good Road` that was finally chosen. The event was graced by eminent personalities Anil Sharma, Sudhir Mishra, Mayor of Mumbai, Sunil Prabhu among many others. PTI