Click to play videoMumbai: For filmmaker Karan Johar, the celebrations around his new film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna won't end with the film's release on August 11.
Johar's star-studded entertainer has been invited for a red-carpet gala screening at the Toronto International film festival in September.
Although only movies making their world premiere are selected for the Toronto festival, the organisers have bent their rules to accommodate Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna which will have released the world over a month before the Toronto screening.
"If you are holding back a release in Canada it means you're opening doors to piracy and then there is no point in going back there," says Johar.
Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee will join Johar for a screening in Toronto.
The movie marks the first song-and-dance Bollywood film to be screened there in 31 years.
Johar believes the opportunity to screen the film in the city will help give a push to Indian cinema in the North American market.
"The Toronto film festival opens various
avenues for the awareness levels in North America. Our endeavour is just that," adds Johar.
Only recently, Johar set up a stall at the film market in Cannes to promote Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna among European distributors.
Last week he was in London to attend the BAFTA Bollywood weekend where he once again made a presentation on the film.
At Toronto, which is considered one of the world's leading film festivals after Cannes, Berlin and Venice, he hopes to arouse the curiosity of white, non-Hindi speaking audiences towards his film and Indian cinema in general.
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