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New Zealand's first dedicated Indian film festival officially launched in Auckland last night, with Bollywood actors Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal attending the brand launch event at Hoyts Cinema Auckland and a special screening of the internationally acclaimed film Girls Will Be Girls.
The Indian Film Festival of New Zealand (TIFFNZ), founded and directed by Petrina D'Rozario, is set to run across multiple New Zealand cities in October 2026. The inaugural edition will screen approximately 30 films across feature and short formats, alongside industry workshops, masterclasses, and networking events aimed at fostering collaboration between the Indian and New Zealand screen sectors.
The launch drew a strong turnout from Auckland's Indian diaspora community, which numbers more than 300,000 nationally, as well as screen industry representatives and cultural leaders, including India's Consul General, Dr Madan Mohan Sethi.
In a statement, India's High Commissioner to New Zealand, H.E. Muanpuii Saiawi, said:
"Cinema plays a profound role in the life of an Indian," the High Commissioner said. "It is no wonder that India has been producing the largest number of films in the world. Film is a powerful medium that brings our two peoples closer."
A Coming-of-Age Film That Has Divided and Inspired India
The evening's centrepiece screening, Girls Will Be Girls, has won awards at the Sundance Film Festival and the Independent Spirit Awards and is now available on some streaming platforms in India.
Directed by Shuchi Talati, the film follows a 16-year-old girl at an Indian boarding school navigating first love and the competing desires of her young mother, both caught between tradition and a quietly emerging freedom.
Set in the late 1990s as India's economy opened up to global consumer culture, the film explores a reality familiar to many Indian women: the gap between the freedoms afforded to boys and those permitted to girls.
During a Q&A session following the screening, Chadha, who produced the film alongside her husband Ali Fazal under their banner Pushing Buttons Studios, addressed the film's mixed reception in India.
"I think the film swept up a lot of awards in India, which was very surprising to me initially," she said. "It has already changed a little bit of how women tell women stories in India, one hundred percent."
The screening was not without incident. Some audience members walked out of the cinema and created a disturbance during the film, which others observed was itself evidence of the film's impact.
Members of the Indian diaspora audience said: "The message is actually in the disturbance. It could be quite difficult for some people to handle their own perceptions."
They said the reaction reflected the film's powerful message focused on women.
Chadha and Fazal, who were briefly absent during the incident, acknowledged it with composure.
"We just heard something happened," Fazal said.
Women Behind the Camera
In an interview with the Asia Media Centre after the formal proceedings, Chadha spoke about whether Girls Will Be Girls could encourage more Indian women to make personal, female-led films and whether India's film industry was ready for them.
"These films are a bit risky," she said. "If it is a big Bollywood film with lots of songs and dances, it would be a little bit easier. So, it's always a little bit harder, but it's really worth the effort. You get to take a very rooted film and travel with it all over the world, and people can relate to it."
Asked if she saw herself as breaking a ceiling for women producers, she was direct:
"I think all ceilings must be broken. Especially glass ones on the chair."
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-Asia Media Centre
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