New York, NY – October 20, 2009 – The sixth annual 2009 South Asian International Film Festival  - Presented by HBO will be held from October 28 – November 3, 2009 in New York City.

The festival will close with Paresh Mokashi’s directorial debut Harishchandrachi Factory at The Imaginasian Theater at 8:00 PM on November 3, 2009.  This is also the North American premiere of the Film Federation of India’s official “Oscar” entry for the 2010 Academy Awards in the foreign film category.  It is only the second Marathi film after ‘Shwaas’ (2004) to be selected for the Oscars.

This film depicts the true story of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke’s quest to create India’s first full-length feature film, “Raja Harishchandra”.  Released in 1913, ‘Raja Harishchandra’ was a big hit and the starting point for the emergence of the biggest film industry in the world today (Bollywood).  This is also the directorial debut of noteworthy theater director and actor, Paresh Mokashi, whose critically acclaimed and appreciated works are known as experimentations in vivid yet atypical humor.  Mokashi started writing the script in 2005 and finished it after only three months. “For me, the inspiration to make the film was Phalke himself. Learning about how he made the film and what he went through prompted me to base the movie on the subject,” he said.

The film won the Academy Award nomination against a field of fifteen other movies, including ‘New York’ and ‘Delhi 6’.  The film has Nandu Mahadev and Vibhavari Deshpande playing Phalke and his wife. The other members of the cast include Mohit Gokhale, Atharva Karve, Dilip Joglekar and Pravin Tarde.  The film has already won several awards, including for best director, best film and best art direction at the 46th Maharashtra State Film Awards, and also for best director at the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) held earlier this year.

“We are honored to present the first full length feature film of Paresh Mokashi as the festival’s official closing night presentation,” said SAIFF President Shilen Amin.  “Paresh entertains and educates moviegoers, many for the very first time, on a true Indian hero with the story of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke and how the birth of Indian cinema took shape nearly ninety-five years ago. This is a very special film for everyone to see and we are proud for him and his team for their 2010 Academy Award nomination.”

For more information about SAIFF 2009 please log on to www.saiff.org.