PA/30/12 19 October 2012
Australian cricket comedy premieres at Mumbai Film Festival
Australian feature film, SAVE YOUR LEGS!, will screen in India for the first time at the Mumbai Film Festival as part of Oz Fest, the biggest Australian cultural festival ever staged in India.
Filmed in Melbourne, Kolkata, Varanasi and Mumbai, SAVE YOUR LEGS! is a comedy inspired by true events. It tells the story of Teddy Brown, a thirty-something man whose life revolves around his mates and their local Melbourne cricket club. As his mates confront their middle-age challenges, Teddy faces the prospect of his cricket club coming apart, so he pitches an audacious three-match tour of India and a mission to meet cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar. A remarkable road trip begins through a land where anything is possible, but nothing is easy.
Australian High Commissioner to India, Mr Peter Varghese, welcomed the Indian premiere of the film, “Through both Oz Fest and SAVE YOUR LEGS!, we hope that Indians come to understand more about Australia. The film shows us what we have in common, from cricket to comedy, to great friendships and films.”
Special guests from Australia and Bollywood will attend the film’s launch on 21 October, with cast and crew, including rising Bollywood star and Oz Fest Ambassador Pallavi Sharda, walking the red carpet on the night. Pallavi will be joined by fellow Oz Fest Ambassadors, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris of Australian Masterchef fame, and Cricket Australia’s National Indigenous cricket team.
“As an Indian-Aussie, I am thrilled to be part of Oz Fest and to have been a part of this film”, Pallavi said.
“With its cast including talent from Australia and India, the film is a perfect example of the ties between the two countries that I have experienced both growing up in Australia and living in India”, Pallavi added.
West Australian transmedia company, RKPix, will launch a beta version of the SAVE YOUR LEGS! phone application with game-like elements of cricket, Indian cuisine and SAVE YOUR LEGS! adventure made in collaboration with Victoria’s Torus Games. Notification of the game’s release will be via www.facebook.com/Saveyourlegs or subscription online at http://www.saveyourlegs.com/
SAVE YOUR LEGS! was directed by Boyd Hicklin, produced by Robyn Kershaw and Nick Batzias and written by Brendan Cowell.
The film is supported by the Victorian Government through Film Victoria and the Trade Engagement Program - India. The Victorian Government is a proud platinum sponsor of Oz Fest, which showcases Australia’s dynamism, creativity and diversity in the arts, business and industry, science and technology, education and tourism, and food and beverages. Oz Fest provides a wonderful platform for future exchanges and important new collaborative projects between Australia and India, and is a fine showcase for the products and services that Victoria can offer India.
Australian film, The Sapphires, inspired by the extraordinary true story of four singers from a remote Aboriginal mission who entertained American troops during the Vietnam War, will also show for the first time in India at the Mumbai Film Festival. The Sapphires is a part of the official competition selection at the Festival.
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For media enquiries, please contact -
Nitya Pillai, Mumbai Consulate-General - +91 22 67574910 or +91 9769933965, [email protected].