Durban singer opens film festival

DURBAN-BORN singer Shashika Mooruth inaugurated the 11th Aryan Jaipur International Film Festival – JIFF 2019 – billed as the world’s biggest competitive film festival.

Mooruth’s duet Rafta Rafta with Indian playback singer Sonu Nigam, was also nominated in the music category at the festival, which started on Friday and ends on Tuesday, where 232 films from 64 countries, together with workshops, seminars and special chat sessions will feature.

Film-makers, actors, directors, producers and writers from around the world are attending the festival.

Mooruth, now based in India, said she was honoured to be invited as a special guest and to have her duet nominated.

“This single is very special as it firstly is with Sonu Nigam and secondly it’s a very challenging song to render. I love challenges and I worked very hard on this song. I isolated myself even more than I usually do to find myself in this song before I recorded my voice.”

Mooruth said that over the past few weeks the media had been covering her life journey in music.

“That has really touched me.”

She added that the festival gave the public an opportunity to explore different types of movies in the national and international market.

“For delegates, it is a platform to showcase one’s work, and interact with others for future collaborations,” she said.