Lihaaf was screened at Sama Film festival, Sweden and Indian International film festival Boston, USA yesterday and it was in nominations for best film at Sweden and, best film, best director and best actress at IIFFM Boston. Lihaaf won best film title whereas Neena Gupta won best actress and Sonal Sehgal was was also a nominee for the film congratulated the senior actress through social media. Rahat Kazmi’s Lihaaf is traveling to many countries and top film festivals and the team is totally overwhelmed with the response they are getting from all over the world. Film is yet to screen in Mexico and Hamburg soon where audience is waiting for the film.

Lihaaf has become the talk of the time before its release. Makers reveal that they are getting distribution opportunities from different countries for theatrical distribution in different languages, so they are just working on a plan to streamline the distribution of the film.

Indian International filmmaker Rahat Kazmi’s film, Lihaaf, recently premiered as the closing film at 16th Indisches Filmfestival, Stuttgart 2019.

The film, which is based on Ismat Chughtai’s most celebrated and most-controversial story, garnered a lot of appreciation from the audience present at the time of screening.

The director and his team could not mark their presence as they were shooting for their next film. However, the actress of the movie, Sonal Sehgal attended the festival on behalf of her team, alongwith the Oscar-winning producer of the movie, Marc Baschet and Co-Editor and Creative Consultant of the film, Golda Sellam, who is also a renowned Film Expert of Europe.

The 16th Indisches Filmfestival was held in Stuttgart (Germany) from July 17 to 21, 2019 and presented feature films, documentaries, children’s and animated films of all length and format, followed by an Award Ceremony on July 21, 2019 for best feature, documentary, short film and so on.

Actress Sonal Sehgal who is also a co-writer in the movie says, “Lihaaf was supposed to premiere at Stuttgart as closing film but due to the heavy demand, the organisers screened it twice. Nonetheless, we received an amazing response from the audience.”

Meanwhile, Lihaaf was also screened at Indo-German Filmweek which was held in Babylon (Berlin) from July 11 to 24, 2019. Started in February 2013 by Stephan Ottenbruch, the Indo-German Filmweek is held annually where Indian films of all languages are screened followed by workshops and discussions with the filmmakers and team.

Lihaaf had two screenings at Indo-German Filmweek and there also, the organisers added another screening on public demand. Sonal Sehgal added, “Usually, the audience watch the screening and leaves the hall whereas, in both Berlin and Stuttgart, we were amazed to see that Q&A round after our screening went on for more than 45 minutes. The audience were just so overwhelmed. She was surprised to know that German students had read Lihaaf as it was in their curriculum. They asked questions about the making of the film, women author writing such a bold story, on homosexuality and how the theme is more relevant in the present era than at the time, the story was written.”

No denying the fact, Lihaaf attracted German Press and made headlines in both the festivals. The film is co-written and directed by Rahat Kazmi and produced by Tariq Khan, Zeba Sajid, Namita Lal, Umesh Shukla, and Ashish Wagh and co-produced by Marc Baschet.