Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer "Roam Rome Mein" will have its US premiere at the inaugural New York City South Asian Film Festival, which will explore diverse themes such as immigration and surrogacy through its line-up of feature films and documentaries.
The first-ever NYC South Asian Film Festival will showcase 24 shorts, documentaries and features.
It will be held from November 15 to 17 at various locations around Manhattan.
The film gala will host four world premieres, three North American premieres and 17 New York City premieres.
Founder and Festival Director Jitin Hingorani said the themes that the movies and documentaries in the festival will explore include immigration, surrogacy, police brutality and the aftermath of HIV/AIDS.
He said the festival aims to strike the right balance and showcase the most current, ground-breaking, topical independent cinema from various parts of South Asia.
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"We have focused our efforts on really engaging the millennials, as they are the future filmmakers, cinephiles, producers and investors, who will, ultimately, support film festivals like ours; so, it is our inherent responsibility to educate them about world-class cinema that is beyond Bollywood," he said.
The festival will kick-off with the special screening of Shonali Bose's "The Sky is Pink", starring Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar, on November 11.
The opening night of the festival will see the world premiere of Rohit Batra's "Line of Descent", starring Brendan Fraser, Abhay Deol and Ronit Roy.
The festival's centerpiece is the NYC Premiere of Gitanjali Rao's "Bombay Rose".
National Award-winning actor Tannishtha Chatterjee's directorial debut "Roam Rome Mein", which chronicles Raj's (Siddiqui) travel to Rome in search of his missing sister, is the closing night film at the festival.
Bose, Deol and Siddiqui are expected to be in attendance at the festival.