Anupam Kher’s much-applauded Hollywood film, David Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook has won the prestigious ‘People’s Choice’ award at the Toronto Film Festival. Those from the Indian Bollywood fraternity who attended the just-concluded Toronto Film Festival say Anupam’s role in Silver Linings Playbook is just about the best most substantial role by an Indian actor in a Hollywood film.

The premiere of Sridevi’s comeback film English Vinglish at the Toronto Film Festival’s prestigious ‘Gala’ section on Friday evening was an outright winner. Funnily more than the two ladies Sridevi and her director Gauri Shinde, it was their respective husbands Boney Kapoor and R Balki who were moved to tears to see the love of their lives light up the posh Roy Thompson Theatre and its hard-to-please audience.

When one of our most versatile actors Anupam Kher has a chance to meet one of his favorite actresses, he naturally doesn’t let go of the opportunity. Hence when at the now-running Toronto Film Festival Anupam Kher got to know that Susan Sarandon was attending, he naturally asked one of his friends from Hollywood for an introduction. Says Anupam from Toronto, “I told her how much I enjoyed her performance in <em>Thelma & Louise</em> and <em>Dead Man Walking</em>. I also met Hugh Grant.”

In what appears to be the very first instance of an Indian film journeying from commercial release to the film festivals. Dibakar Bannerjee’s <em>Shanghai</em> is all set to first proceed to the Toronto Film festival and then to other selected festivals after the film has had its full commercial run in Indian theatres. This, according to a very reliable source from within the project’s core crew was a decision taken by the producers.