'Aligarh' becomes second Hindi film to open Mumbai Film Festival since 'Hazar Chaurasi Ki Maa'

National award-winning filmmaker Hansal Mehta's real life-inspired drama  Aligarh will open the upcoming 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival here on October 29.

Aligarh, starring Rajkummar Rao and Manoj Bajpayee, is based on the real-life incident of professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, who was fired from his job because of his sexual orientation. Bajpayee is playing the role of Siras in this movie, and Rao portrays the role of a journalist.

 Tweeted on Mumbai Film Festivals twitter account:

#Aligarh is the Official Opening Film at the #JioMAMI Mumbai Film Festival. pic.twitter.com/EVC6gvvIMg

— JioMAMI (@Mumbaifilmfest) October 3, 2015

Aligarh will become the second Hindi film to open the festival since its foundation in 1998. Veteran actress Jaya Bachchan-starrer Hazar Chaurasi Ki Maa opened the festival in 1997.

Rao also shared the news on the micro-blogging site and congratulate the cast and crew members of the film.

Thrilled to announce that #Aligarh is the opening film at MAMI. @mehtahansal @Mumbaifilmfest @Apurvasrani. Congratulations team. #JioMAMI

— Rajkummar Rao (@RajkummarRao) October 3, 2015

Read: Intrigued by reading and watching biographies: Rajkumar Rao