Turning brand ambassador

Michelin-star chef Vikas Khanna has been named brand ambassador of a leading cultural organisation, which will organise the annual New York Indian Film Festival next month that showcases the celebrity chef’s film The Last Color and Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Photograph.

Khanna, 47, was named as brand ambassador of Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) during a press conference at the Consulate General of India in New York.

The IAAC will present the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), North America’s longest-running and most prestigious Indian film festival from May 7 to 12. Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan has accepted to join the IAAC board.

The festival, supported by the Indian Consulate, will open with Rohena Gera directed Sir, starring Tillotama Shome, which was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The festival’s center-piece is Photograph, directed by Ritesh Batra and starring Sanya Malhotra. Khanna’s The Last Color is the closing night film of the festival and has won rave reviews at various international film festivals for its lead actress Neena Gupta, who plays a widow living a life of abstinence. — PTI