Japan

The Ranbir Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra- Ileana D'Cruz-starrer Barfi! recently won the Grand Jury Award for Best Film at this year’s (2013) Okinawa International Film Festival, Japan. The film, directed by Anurag Basu was featured in the competition section along with last year's most acclaimed critical successes from across the world including <em>Beasts of the Southern Wild</em> (USA) that had received four Academy Awards nominations and has already won three awards at Cannes 2012.

It was meant to be a huge marketing coup, with Salman Khan opening up the hitherto dormant Japanese market for Bollywood with a nationwide release in Japan of Yashraj Film’s <em>Ek Tha Tiger</em>. Director Kabir Khan flew excitedly into a 4-city tour of Japan last week at the invitation the Japanese distributors Nikkatsu Corporation and the release date was fixed for April 20 in Japan.