All-star Bollywood panel breaks new ground at TIFF

A sold-out crowd flocked to see the first Bollywood film to have a gala at the Toronto International Film Festival and to see the panel featuring director Karan Johar and some of India's biggest stars.

Never Say Goodbye, whose Hindi title isKabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, is one of the most controversial to come out of India this year, drawing fire because it breaks Bollywood taboos.

Itmade its debut beginning at about 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon atRoy Thompson Hall, after whichits all-star lineup joined Joharon thestage for a conversation moderated by New York writer Suketu Mehta.

Johar is a veteran director in Indian cinema, but Never Say Goodbye (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) has been more hotly anticipated than any of his previous works. As in most Bollywood productions, the film includessinging and dancing but it also stars lovers whobreak their marital vows, a no-no in the Indian film industry.

Some of Bollywood's biggest stars are involved, including Shah Rukh Khan playingan injured soccer player who falls for another man's wife, played by Rani Mukherji. Amitabh Bachchan,a star since the 1970s, gives a comic turnas an incorrigibly lustful widower.

Thom Powers, a writer and producer in charge of TIFF's Real to Reel and Mavericks lineups, said he is hoping the panel will introduce Bollywood to a wider audience.

"One of the things we try to do in Mavericks is put a frame around some of the most interesting people in world cinema and create an opportunity to open up the work they do to a larger conversation," he told the CBC.

"And this seems possibly like a once-in-a-lifetime chance in Toronto to have Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar here."

Power said it was fortunate that Mehta, who divides his time between New York and Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), was available to moderate.

"We wanted to find the right moderator who could help bridge the world of Bollywood and bring it to western audiences who maybe are not that familiar with Bollywood. We thought that perfect person for that was the writer Suketu Mehta, who wrote the book Maximum City about [Mumbai]," Powers said. Maximum City was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Huge cheers as stars arrive

Johar has made a specialty of mashing up influences from Eastern and Western cinema, but is taking a courageous step in straying from Bollywood's saccharine format to examine the stresses on modern marriage.

The stars were a big draw for local followers of Bollywood, who formed huge crowdsoutside Roy Thompson Hall and erupted intoear-splitting cheers as the big names arrived.

Before the panel, Powers said he expected it to be "absolute madness."

But he said he also hoped it would open up some eyes among film fans who have not taken Bollywood seriously.

"There's obviously going to be a lot of people there [in the audience] who are huge fans and who know all the work," he said.

"But there's a lot of people in the West for whom this incredibly vibrant cinema in India is unknown. It's a cinema that has all of its own vernacular and a style all to its own."