HAIDER WINS PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD AT THE ROME FILM FESTIVAL

The film had an Italian Premiere on 24th October and is the first Indian Film to get this award

Mumbai, 25th October: Haider produced by UTV Motion Pictures and VB Pictures which had its Italian premiere at the prestigious Rome Film Festival on 24th October, won the ‘People’s Choice Award’ in the Mondo Genre (World Genre) announced today. Out of the 7 films that featured under this genre, Haider was the only Asian film selected across the globe. This is the first time that an Indian film wins the Audience Award in a non- specialized (non-focused on Asian Cinema) wide-ranging International festival. After winning hearts across India, the movie continues to woo audiences across the globe. Winning the ‘People’s Choice Award’ is truly prestigious as it’s one of the most unbiased awards since its chosen by the audiences and Haider was clearly the choice of the people. This is a huge honour for the Film as well as the country.

The Mondo Genre had a selection of feature films of young or already successful directors this year and the festival gave priority to films that are world premieres. The movies selected were from countries like Italy, USA, Brazil and France. Along with Haider other films selected at the festival included films like Gone Girl by David Fincher starring Ben Affleck, The Knick by Steven Soderbergh starring Clive Owen, Black and White by Mike, Binder starting Kevin Costner, Still Alice by Richard Glatzer starring Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart and Alec Baldwin, Night Crawler by Dan Gilroy starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jia Zhangke, UN Gars De Fenyang by Walter Salles,Time Out of Mine by Oren Moverman starring Richard Gere and movies starring Johnny Depp, Stonehearst Asylum by Richard Anderson starring Kate Beckinsale and Ben Kingsley among several others.

In the past the ‘People’s Choice Award’ at The Rome Film Festival was won 'Dallas Buyers Club’ in 2013 and ‘The Motel Life’ in 2012."This is a huge achievement for the film and a matter of pride for India. Haider has been awarded with the Peoples choice award in the ‘Mondo genre’ of the Rome Film Festival. It truly affirms our belief that good cinema can transcend boundaries and this award puts Haider on the global map. After the overwhelming wave of appreciation in India now Haider embarks on its global journey with this feat,” says Amrita Pandey, VP & Head of Marketing and Distribution – Studios, Disney India.

“Haider is a classic Shakespearean tale retold with Kashmir in India as its backdrop, it’s a story that we would like to take to the world and to get this award now is a proud moment for the entire team of Haider,” says Director .

“I am fortunate to get a chance to be a part of this breakthrough movie, it was one of the most difficult roles for me and I am ecstatic with the positive reviews and audience feedback Haider has received. It’s a moment of immense pride that the movie has got this award at the festival,” says who plays the role of Haider.

Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, Haider is a modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, set in the backdrop of the beautiful Kashmir and stars Shahid Kapoor, , , and Irrfan. The movie saw a worldwide release on Oct 2nd, 2014 and with this movie the much-admired filmmaker completes his Shakespearean trilogy.

About the Film: Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', Haider - a young man returns home to Kashmir on receiving news of his father's disappearance. Not only does he learn that security forces have detained his father for harboring militants, but that his mother is in a relationship with his very own uncle. Intense drama follows between mother and son as both struggle to come to terms with news of his father's death. Soon Haider learns that his uncle is responsible for the gruesome murder, what follows is his journey to avenge his father's death.

About Rome Film Festival: The 9th Rome Film Festival will take place from October 16 to 25, 2014, at the Auditorium Parco della Musica. All the spaces in the Auditorium, for a total capacity of four thousand seats, will be open for the Festival. Thus, for ten days and will be the centre of attraction for professionals, journalists, and film buffs, hosting screenings, exhibitions, events, conferences, debates. The 1,300 square metres of the avenue leading to the Cavea (an open-air theatre square used) will become one of the largest red carpets in the world. The Official Selection of the Festival consists in four sections: Cinema d’Oggi (Cinema Today) will present films by both young and well-known authors, Gala will select the season’s great “popular but original” films, Mondo Genere (Genre World) will be a collection of films from various film genres, while Prospettive Italia will present a survey of the latest trends in Italian fiction films and documentaries. The parallel and independent sidebar Alice nella città will present a selection of youth- oriented films, following its own regulations.

About Disney India

Bringing together the best of both worlds, The Walt Disney Studios and UTV Motion Pictures have formed one of the leading film studios in India. The studio's activities span across creative development, production, marketing, distribution, licensing, merchandising and syndication of films in India and worldwide.

UTV Motion Pictures as a dominant player in the Indian film industry has been in the forefront of bringing Indian films to a global audience and the last decade in Indian cinema has seen UTV delivering some of the most iconic films including Swades, Rang De Basanti, Jodhaa Akbar, A Wednesday, Dev D, , The Namesake, Life in a Metro, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, Fashion, Kaminey, No One Killed Jessica, Raajneeti, Udaan, Peepli Live, Delhi Belly, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, Paan Singh Tomar, Rowdy Rathore, Barfi!, Heroine, Race 2, AnyBody Can Dance (ABCD), Kai Po Che!, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Ship of Theseus, Chennai Express, Satyagraha, The Lunchbox, Shahid and more recently Highway, 2 States, Heropanti, Filmistaan, Kick, Raja Natwarlal, Khoobsurat and Haider.

The studio has to its credit 4 films in the last 10 years that have been selected to represent India at the Academy awards; Rang De Basanti (2006), Harishchandrachi Factory (2009), Peepli Live (2010) and Barfi! (2012). In 2011, UTV also became one of the few studios to successfully venture into South Indian cinema with Deivathirumagal and Muran, and has had a successful run so far with Vettai, Masala Café, Mugamoodi, Thaandavam, Settai , Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru and Ivan Veramathiri in Tamil, and Grandmaster & Husbands in Goa in Malayalam. UTV has a library of over 100 films including , Regional, Animation and International Productions, which have been showcased in over 50 festivals across 50 countries, receiving almost 400 awards in the last 10 years.

The Walt Disney Studios witnessed an unprecedented box office success in India in 2012 with MARVEL's The Avengers which was distributed and marketed in India by UTV Motion Pictures. The film emerged as the 5th highest grosser of all-time amongst Hollywood films in India. Iron Man 3 released in 2013 became the highest Hollywood grosser for the year. More recently Captain America: The Winter Soldier became the second largest Hollywood film in India for the year 2014 so far and academy award winner Frozen emerged as the 3rd biggest Disney animation title in the region. Prior to this, Cars 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 released in 2011 and were the biggest animation and live action titles of all time for Disney in the country. In 2010, Prince of Persia became the highest grossing western film in India that year. In 2014, a brand new offering from Marvel – Guardians of The Galaxy met with a great response in the Indian market. Our recent Tamil release, Anjaan with superstar Suriya has created waves down south. Earlier, Disney released its first live action Hindi feature in 2010 and subsequently after the success of the film, released Anaganaga-O-Dheerudu, a Telugu feature targeted at the southern audiences and second Hindi live-action film Zokkomon.

Coming up is an inimitable slate with films that span a wide variety of genres from drama, action to romance, comedy and thriller including films like PK, ABCD 2, Jagga Jasoos and Fitoor in Hindi, Sigaram Thodu, Purambokku, Yatchan in Tamil; Big Hero Six and Avengers – Age of Ultron in English and many more. For further queries please contact:

Sujata Chanda – 9892490579 [email protected]

Sneh Kulkarni – 9820712440 [email protected]