Bollywood gives thumbs up to MAMI film festival

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Mumbai: Several Bollywood celebrities marked their presence on the final night of Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival and praised the event for showcasing quality cinema.

The seven-day festival was attended by host of Bollywood personalities, like Salman Khan, Vidya Balan, Kangana Ranaut, Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Saif Ali Khan, Rajkumar Hirani, ,Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Sridevi, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar among others.

Heaping praise for organising such an event, superstar Salman Khan said, "I am so happy that Kiran Rao reintroduced MAMI. I think it is the best thing that you (while looking at Kiran) could have ever done in your life after Aamir Khan."

"The best thing about MAMI is Kiran and Anupama heading it. The awards that you get here will be true and correct. It will be on merit. We want to see getting MAMI bigger,"Khan said at the MAMI festival here last night.

Calling the edition "great" "Dil Dhadakne Do" helmer said, "I saw few films like 'Aligarh'. I conducted workshop for children it taught me lot of things. It (festival) has been great this year."

Focusing on the importance of good cinema actor Saif Ali Khan said the festival is a nice platform for talented people.

"I am happy to be here for MAMI. Mumbai is home to Indian cinema. It is good that we have festival in Mumbai. There is a divide between commercial, art house and independent cinema, that shouldn't happen. The focus should be on good cinema."

Actress Vidya Balan, who is known for her powerful performances in films like "Kahaani" and "The Dirty Picutre" was all praise for portrayal of women in films shown at MAMI.

"I saw 15 films being on the international jury, they all were amazing. At the festival there was great content shown, discussions were great, selection of films and jury was good. The female performances stand out in all the films that I have seen," Vidya said. Actors Jackie Shroff and Riteish Deshmukh could not catch up on films screened at MAMI due to their busy schedule, but were happy to attend the closing.

"Unfortunately I couldn't get to see films at the festival, but I have heard the films shown here were amazing," Jackie said.

"I couldn't see much films at the festival. I am glad I could be there at the opening and closing ceremony," said Riteish.