Manto to open Jaipur International Film Festival

Deepika starrer Piku will also be screened alongside the Pakistani film

After making waves across the world, Sarmad Khoosat's directorial Manto is all set to open Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF) in India.

The eight edition of the upcoming festival will start January 2nd in the famous Indian city and will be inaugurated by filmmaker Prakash Jha, reports NDTV.

Manto and Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan starrer Piku have been announced as the opening films.



"Iraqi Odyssey (from UAE) and Saankal (from Rajasthan) would be the closing films of the festival which is scheduled to be inaugurated by Prakash Jha on January 2," said the festival Director, Hanu Roj.

He also revealed that JIFF is dedicated to screen writers and will showcase 152 films, including 35 feature films, 17 documentary feature films, 58 short films, 17 documentary short films and 15 short animation films.



"The films, to be screened in competitive and other sections, have been selected from the entries of 2176 films received from 100 countries," said Hanu.



"There has been an increased representation of films from Asian countries this time. Films from Pakistan, Afghanistan, UAE and Iran besides European countries and India will also be screened. There are more than a dozen films on subjects concerning women which will be screened at the festival," he added.