Akshaye is da best

A MOVIE about the Indian women's hockey team shot in Sydney and Melbourne has won the best film award at the Australian Indian Film Festival.

Box office hit Chak De India, directed by Shimit Amin, was filmed around Sydney and Melbourne, featuring 90 Australian hockey players and more than 9000 locals as extras.

The movie was inspired by the Indian women's hockey team's surprise win at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.

Indian heartthrob Akshaye Khanna received the best performance award for his portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi's son Harilal in Feroz Khan's Gandhi My Father.

The film was recently accepted into competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival and is up for a best screenplay award at the inaugural Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

The awards were announced tonight at a gala ceremony at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art hosted by film critic Peter Thompson.

The awards were chosen by a respected group of Australian film critics, including Thompson, Margaret Pomeranz, Nell Schofield and Ian Taylor.

The 5th Australian Indian Film Festival opened last night in Sydney with a screening of Gandhi My Father, and will showcase the best in Indian cinema over the next 10 days.

It will go on the road after it ends in Sydney and Melbourne on October 28.

AK gets his first award for Gandhi--My Father. The thing that makes me so happy is that the jury is mostly Aussie and hence likely to be more objective. The award season begins early.


I had no idea that they were going to have an awards ceremony. Otherwise I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I belive this is the first time apna AK got a Best Actor award too. Woweeeee!