New Delhi, 10 July

Kiran Rao's ‘Laapataa Ladies‘, ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani‘, directed by Karan Johar, Vidhu Vinod Chopra's ‘12th Fail‘, and ‘Kaathal - The Core‘ by Jeo Baby have emerged as the top nominees at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) Awards 2023, the organisers said on Wednesday.

The 15th edition of IFFM is set to commence on 15 August, coinciding with Independence Day, and conclude on 25 August. Kiran Rao's ‘Laapataa Ladies‘, ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’, directed by Karan Johar, Vidhu Vinod Chopra's ‘12th Fail‘, 2023, the organisers said on Wednesday.

The 15th edition of IFFM is set to commence on 15 August, coinciding with Independence Day, and conclude on 25 August. The winners will be announced on 16 September at the annual gala night, set to be hosted at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne.

Besides ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani‘ and ‘12th Fail‘, nominees in the best film category are ‘Amar Singh Chamkila‘, ‘Chandu Champion‘, ‘Dunki‘, ‘Jawan‘, ‘Maharaja‘, and ‘Premalu‘. The best film - critics choice segment is populated by titles such as ‘Laapataa Ladies‘, ‘Kaathal - The Core’, ‘Dear Jassi‘, ‘Girls Will Be Girls‘, ‘Kabuliwala‘, ‘Rapture‘, ‘Sapta Sagaradaache Ello‘, and ‘Thadavu‘.

In the best actor category, Shah Rukh Khan has secured a double nomination for ‘Dunki‘ and ‘Jawan‘. Diljit Dosanjh (‘Amar Singh Chamkila‘), Fahadh Faasil (‘Aavesham‘), Kartik Aaryan (‘Chandu Champion‘), Mammootty (‘Kaathal - The Core‘), Mithun Chakraborty (‘Kabuliwala‘), Ranveer Singh (‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani‘), Sparsh Shrivastava (‘Laapataa Ladies‘), Vicky Kaushal (‘Sam Bahadur‘), and Vikrant Massey (‘12th Fail‘) are also vying for the top prize.

Debutantes Nitanshi Goel and Pratibha Ranta of ‘Laapataa Ladies‘ and Alizeh Agnihotri (‘Farrey‘) have earned a nomination in the best actress category, alongside Alia Bhatt (‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani‘), Beena R Chandran (‘Thadavu‘), Jyothika (‘Kaathal – The Core’), Parvathy Thiruvothu (‘Ullozhukku’), Preeti Panigrahi (‘Girls will be Girls‘), Sanya Malhotra (‘Mrs‘), and Swathi Reddy (‘Month of Madhu‘).

The best director race has contenders in "Amar Singh Chamkila" director Imtiaz Ali, "Chandu Champion" director Kabir Khan, "Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani" director Karan Johar, "Maharaja" director Nithilan Saminathan, "Bramayugam" director Rahul Sadasivan, "Dunki" director Rajkumar Hirani, and "12th Fail" director Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

Nominees in the best director - critics choice category are Christo Tomy ("Ullozhukku"), Diwa Shah ("Bahadur - The Brave"), Dominic Sangma ("Rimdogittanga"), Hemanth Rao ("Sapta Sagaradaache Ello - Side A"), Kiran Rao ("Laapataa Ladies"), Saurav Rai ("Guras"), Shuchi Talati ("Girls will be Girls") and Sumanth Bhat ("Mithya").

Web series "Made in Heaven 2", "Panchayat" season 3, "Kohrra", and "Poacher" lead the nominations list in the OTT segment. Besides these four web series, "Dhootha", "Heeramandi", and "The Railway Men" are also part of the best OTT show nominations list. Arjun Mathur ("Made in Heaven 2"), Babil Khan ("The Railway Men"), Gulshan Devaiah ("Guns & Gulaabs"), Jitendra Kumar ("Panchayat Season 3"), Naveen Chandra ("Inspector Rishi"), R. Madhavan ("The Railway Men"), Roshan Mathew ("Poacher") and Suvinder Vicky ("Kohrra") will compete for the best actor OTT trophy.