# Waheeda Rehman to attend inaugural Indian Film Festival of New Zealand 2026-08-27T01:27:01+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Legendary actress Waheeda Rehman will attend the opening night of the inaugural Indian Film Festival of New Zealand (TIFFNZ) on October 22 in Auckland, where her 1965 film 'Teesri Kasam' will open the festival. The restored 1972 classic 'Pakeezah' will close the event, which runs across Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch over three days. The festival, organised by TIFFNZ, will showcase 30 screenings including 10 features, 16 shorts, and 4 special programmes across 11 languages including Gujarati, Bengali, Malayalam, and Tamil. It will also feature industry panels, Q&A sessions, networking events, and an awards evening. Festival director Petrina D'Rozario said TIFFNZ is the second festival in the world to screen the restored 'Pakeezah'. The event aims to bridge screen industries and cultures between India and New Zealand, where nearly 5% of the population is of Indian origin. More participants will be announced in coming weeks. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Dedicated Indian film festivals in countries with diaspora populations have been a growing trend, often serving as soft-power platforms and cultural bridges for New Zealand's roughly 300,000-strong Indian community. The inclusion of NFAI-NFDC and Film Heritage Foundation restorations signals official institutional backing from India's government agencies. Director Petrina D'Rozario's emphasis on the festival being only the second in the world to screen the restored 'Pakeezah' positions TIFFNZ as a niche curatorial player. The key metric to watch is whether the 30 screenings and networking events translate into concrete co-production agreements or increased New Zealand location shoots for Indian films, with the next edition's program announcement due after this debut. ## Coverage - bollywoodhungama.com Straight event-promotion report with no editorial slant, leading with guest and film details This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: New Zealand, Teesri Kasam, Waheeda Rehman Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/waheeda-rehman-to-attend-inaugural-indian-film-festival-of-new-zealand/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/waheeda-rehman-to-attend-inaugural-indian-film-festival-of-new-zealand/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/