The film, Aligarh has been selected to screen at the 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, which will begin from October 29. Directed by Hansal Mehta, Aligarh set in the small town of Uttar Pradesh and is based on the real life incident of Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, who was fired from his job because of his sexual orientation. Siras, who was the professor of Marathi at the Aligarh Muslim University, later committed suicide. Manoj Bajpai is playing the role of Siras in this movie, and Rajkummar Rao plays a journalist in the film.

Mehta, 47, who won the National Award in best direction in 2013 for his critically acclaimed Shahid, said the film festival holds a very special place in his heart. “I am overjoyed that Aligarh, my first film about a city other than Mumbai is the opening film of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. This is a befitting reward for a team that has worked selflessly to make a film they are passionate about. This festival holds a very special place in my heart as it began a journey of awards for Shahid which was until then an unheralded dark horse in a year of sparkling indies,” Mehta said in a statement. 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.

Apart from this, the film will also be screened at the Busan International Film festival and the 59th BFI London Film Festival this year.