“Roadside Romeo” wins Special International Jury’s Prize at the Cairo International Film Festival for children 2010 in Egypt

Yash Raj Films’ and Disney’s Roadside Romeo does it again! After being awarded The National Award for Best Animation Film, The Golden Cursor Animation (GCA) Award in 5 categories, the Screen Award for Best Animation Film, the 24 FPS Animation Award for the Best Animated Feature Film and the coveted FICCI BAF Award for the Best Animated Feature Film, Roadside Romeo recently won The Special Children’s International Jury Prize for Animation Films at The Cairo International Film Festival For Children 2010. Especially judged by the children jury members, the award was received on 11th March, 2010 by the Indian Ambassador to Egypt, H.E. Mr. R. Swaminathan on behalf of India. The award was handed over in India to Mr. Yash Chopra on 19th March, 2010 by the Advisor and Representative of The Cairo International Film in India, Mr. Gaurang Jalan. Directed by the talented Jugal Hansraj and featuring the voices of Bollywood superstars Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor as Romeo and Laila along with comedian Jaaved Jaffrey as Charlie Anna, Roadside Romeo released worldwide on October 24, 2008. The landmark animation which has made the movie a delight to watch have been created by Visual Computing Labs (VCL), a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd.

One of the most important children film festival in the world, The 20th Cairo International Film Festival For Children took place from March 4th to 11th this year under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture and the Government of Egypt. The festival had two competitive sections - (a) Competition for Long and Short Feature Films and (b) Competition for Animation & TV Programmes. Jury members comprised of prominent personalities from the film fraternity across the world, besides children juries from Egypt, Italy, Jordan, India, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, UK, USA & Indonesia - who watched over 125 films in the above sections.

Furthermore, Indian films are also being revived and released in theatres in Egypt after a gap of over 15 years or more. Yash Raj Films will be the forerunner by releasing New York shortly in Cairo and Alexandria. Directed by Kabir Khan, produced by Aditya Chopra and starring John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Irrfan, New York released on June 26, 2009 and has continued to garner worldwide acclaim and recognition ever since.