ZEE5 – India’s largest multilingual digital entertainment destination announces the launch of the ZEE5 Film Festival. As part of the festival, 12 films – six from India and Pakistan each will be featured every Friday on a weekly basis starting 24th August 2018. Given the current global scenario, it is important to bring people together. This thought resonates with ZEE’s philosophy of Extraordinary Together that will redefine the boundaries of entertainment as we know it.

The opening movie for the festival will be Toba Tek Singh, the Ketan Mehta directed and Pankaj Kapur, Vinay Pathak starrer, adaptation of Manto’s novel by the same name. In fact, Toba Tek Singh captures the story of a mental asylum where friendship extends beyond the ties of religion in the aftermath of Indo-Pak partition; it delves deeper into the pain of separation from the people you love and place you call home.

Commenting on the release, Director Ketan Mehta said, “I am delighted to be part of the ZEE5 Film Festival. It is definitely a brilliant initiative showcasing thought-provoking films from India and Pakistan to the audience through an OTT platform and a film festival format. I do hope the movie is able to spark conversations about the topic and hopefully we are able to jointly prompt the next generation towards a better tomorrow.”

Expressing his thoughts on the launch, actor Pankaj Kapur shared, “Digital platforms today are bringing to the fore much-needed discussions around topics that are still a taboo for traditional screens. We are proud to be a part of the ZEE5 Film Festival which goes beyond the national barriers and features films created by award-winning directors and actors discussing important issues.”

Manish Aggarwal, Business Head – ZEE5 India said, “Our objective to host the ZEE5 Film Festival stemmed from the interest we have seen among our viewers for content that spurs them to think and have an engaging conversation. This is also the perfect mix for our audience who appreciates such world-class entertainment that is not easily available. The Festival will release one film every Friday starting 24th August to 9th November giving viewers the opportunity to make it their weekend movie fix with a though-provoking watch. The movies have been created by acclaimed directors with well-known actors and definitely have the power to influence and change mindsets across the globe.”

ZEE5 Film Festival Line-up

Movie Director Actors Country
Toba Tek Singh Ketan Mehta Pankaj Kapur, Vinay Pathak India
Baarish Aur Chowein Tigmanshu Dhulia Taapsee Pannu, Amit Sadh India
Silvat Tanuja Chandra Kartik Aryan, Meher Mistry India
Guddu Engiineer Nikhil Advani Prabudh Dyma, Pranati Ghogare India
Dobaara Bejoy Nambiar Manav Kaul, Parvathy Omanakuttan India
Saari Raat Aparna Sen Konkana Sen Sharma, Ritwik Chakraborty, Anjan Dutt India
Jeewan Hathi Meenu & Farjad Naseeruddin Shah, Adnan Jaffar, Samiya Mumtaz, Hina Dilpazeer Pakistan
Moomal Rano Siraj-Ul-Haq Saba Qamar, Ahsan Khan Pakistan
Lala Begum Mehreen Jabbar Marina Khan, Humayun Sayeed, Sonia Rehman Qureshi Pakistan
Chotay Shah Sabiha Sumar Adnan Jaffar, Naveed Shehzad, Tara Mahmood Pakistan
Laloolal.Com Khalid Ahmad Faysal Qureshi, Natasha Portess Pakistan
Khaemae Main Matt Jhankain Shahbaz Sumar Hassan Abbas, Aara Haider Pakistan