Literature, Illusion, Film, Frame, Television and Theatre India LIFFT INDIA®, a brand established and owned by Riju Bajaj began with its maiden endeavour ‘LIFFT INDIA FILMOTSAV-World Cine Fest‘ and ‘LIFFT INDIA AWARDS‘ popularly known as ‘Lifft India Filmotsav’ {not for profit} established in 2017 by its Founder Mr. Riju Bajaj and Co-Founder Dr.Anamika Sharma under the aegis of “M/s Riju Bajaj Media & Entertainment” RBME® to promote and bring best of the films, television and new media content by independent, student and professional film makers from across the globe to be showcased in Lonavla and around the world.
The overwhelming response to the World Cine Fest and Awards led to formation of:-
LIFFT INDIA STUDIOS,
LIFFT INDIA YOUTUBE CHANNEL,
LIFFT INDIA FASHION
LIFFT INDIA ACADEMY
RAM GOPAL BAJAJ ACTING STUDIO RGBAS
LIFFT INDIA XSTREAM
LIFFT INDIA® is a Global Touring festival of literature, illusion, information, film, frame, television and theatre awards to be originating from and held annually in Lonavla, a tourist destination of India near Mumbai & Pune.
Lifft India Filmotsav also hosts Q&A, Conversation Session and Master Class Session with participant and eminent film makers and actors to help in growing the knowledge of film making amongst the new and budding film enthusiasts. Lifft India extensively explores marketing possibilities to help independent, student and professional film makers to market their films and future projects.
Lifft India is amongst the very few festivals in the world which has integrated the mix of all the possible genre, mode, style, format of film making meant for theatrical release, television, VOD service, Online Player etc. under one roof to boost the exchange of ideas and possibilities between the various film makers who attend the festival.
1ST EDITION
The first edition of Lifft India Filmotsav-World Cine Fest that opened on 1st sept 2017 at Fariyas Resort, Lonavla was dedicated in memory of Late Mr. Om Puri. Lifft India Filmotsav 2017 allowed entry to children to view films for only the children’s film category. All other film categories were screened for only adults {18+ age group}. This made Lifft India the only film festival that encourages children to participate in an international film festival along with professional film makers in a competition category. The attempt here is to create a platform for young and new budding film makers and actors. The cine fest concluded with Lifft India Awards 2017 on the 5th sept 2017. About 87 films from over 20 countries were screened at the first edition of Lifft India Filmotsav which was attended by Govind Nihalani, Manoj Bajpayee, Rajit Kapoor, Vipin Sharma, Pia Benegal, Mangesh Joshi, Chitranjan Giri, Meeta Vashishth, Leslie Lewis, Vidya Shah, Kunicka Sadanand, Shekhar Sen, Tripurari Sharma, Danish Hussain, Vani Tripathy Tikoo, Leena Yadav, Omkar Kapoor and Avinash das to name a few.
Many Lifft India Awards are named in memory of some legendary film personalities of their times such as Ismail Merchant Award for best producer, Khemchand Prakash Award for best music, V.K.Murthy Award for best cinematography, Sameer Chanda Award for best production design, Renu Saluja Award for best editing and Om Puri Award in conjunction with Om Puri Founadation for best actor.
Lifft India also has a Film Club and traveling/ Sattellite film festival known as Lifft India Kaarvaan to achieve the best outreach and promotions for the films that are part of Lifft India. It will benefit filmmakers with enhanced exposure to diverse audience. The officially selected films will be screened at professionally equipped banquet halls at the luxury hotel to provide and achieve best world class experience. Lifft India Filmotsav-World Cine Fest, Lonavla is a travelling boutique film festival that will be hosted in commercial theatres and Luxury Hotels only.
Lifft India also strives to promote theatre and stage actors, painters, still photographers, authors, script writers, singers, and dancers. The international theatre festival known as LIFFT INDIA NATYOTSAV integrated with the FILMOTSAV {film festival}. ‘SAHITYOTSAV’ & ‘CHITROTSAV’ and LIFFT INDIA FASHION ‘VASTROTSAV’will also be organised in due course of time.
Lifft India promotes the concept of Green Film Festival by adopting to be fully digital, paperless, zero waste, recycling and all other possible means of being eco friendly to achieve Green Film Festival status.
Lifft India also plans to uplift the art & cultural activities by incorporating them as part of the festival and by also establishing LIFFT INDIA ACADEMY that will impart knowledge of over all global arts & culture along with training in film, media folk forms and theatre.
The Academy is launched with RAM GOPAL BAJAJ ACTING STUDIO providing a 12 month intensive course & short term courses on craft of acting. The admission for the academy is open and the classes for the first batch starts in 2020.
In July 2018, Lifft India Filmotsav presented a short feature ‘The Re-Bell’ starring Vivaan Shah, Shruti Bhardawaj and Jenifer John. The film marked establishment of LIFFT INDIA REPERTORY to continue presenting new films and series etc. for ‘Lifft India You Tube channel’ to be produced under RBME.
2ND EDITION
The Second Edition of Lifft India Filmotsav was held at Fariyas Resort, Lonavla from 6th December to 10 december 2018. The films were carefully selected and judged by the panelists such as Ram Gopal Bajaj, Dolly Thakore, Pia Benegal, Gyan Sahay, Atul Tiwary, Shefali Bhushan, Parag Chhapekar, Suhail Tatari and Riju Bajaj. The honoray advisory board includes eminent film and theatre personalities like Leena Yadav, Aseem Bajaj, Anand Vardhan, Jayant Deshmukh, Feroz Zahid Khan, Sidhharth Anand Kumar and Chokkas Bhardwaj. The Lifft India Awards were declared on 10th Dec 2018. The event was attended by Rahul Rawail, Vivek Sharma, Sushmita Mukherjee, Vani Tripathy Tikoo, Nandita Puri, Girish Pardeshi, Ayesha Julka, Kanwaljit Singh, Seema Azmi, Atul Kumar, Lt. Gen. Zaheer Uddin Shah, Shivani Tibrewala, Tanu Mehta, Aseem Bajaj, Leena Yadav, Mumtaz Khan and many other luminaries from the world of cinema and art.
3RD EDITION
The film submission/entry for the Third Edition of Lifft India Filmotsav-World Cine Fest opened on 1st january 2019 and the festival was held from 12th Dec to 16th Dec 2019 at Fariyas Resort, Lonavla. The Lifft India Awards 2019 were declared on 16th Dec 2019. The festival was attended by Ravi Rai, Abhiram Bhadkamkar, Deepak Dobriyal, Meeta Vashishth, Vikas Sharma, Sushmita Mukherjee, Rituparno Biswas, Taranjit Kaur, Inaamul Haq, Rajesh Touchriver, Manoj Mishra, Meganti Venu Benerjee, Vinod Mankara, Omkar Kapoor, Jayant Gadekar, Sandeep Sawant, Luke Keny, Danish Husain, Vidya Shah, Bahzad Khoviesi, Ghorban Najafi and Solmaz Etimad and many more.
4TH EDITION
Due to COVID-19 PANDEMIC, the Fourth Edition of the festival was held as an ‘ONLINE’ Festival without live event and without live/virtual public screenings in the year 2020 making it a very special event held during the pandemic period. The film submission/entry for the 4th Edition of Lifft India Filmotsav-World Cine Fest opened on 1st July 2020 and the Lifft India Awards 2020 for over 100 categories were declared ‘ONLINE’ on 25th & 26th Dec 2020.
The Fourth Edition also saw declaration of introduction of full fledged Music Awards and Web Awards along with introduction of awards for multiple categories for Student Film awards by Lifft India for the first time.
Lifft India Filmotsav-World Cine Fest 2020 conducted over 60 online Q&A sessions with filmmakers and artistes from around the world on its youtube channel. This makes Lifft India the only fest from India to have achieved such a feat during Pandemic period. Very important online conversation sessions with film distributors from Vista India and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Pvt Ltd. was also held to help independent filmmakers understand the distribution system for marketing their films.
There were over 425 official Selections of films which were further shortlisted to over 150 films to be nominated for LIFFT INDIA AWARDS 2020. Finally there were 105 Awards declared in various categories. Lifft India Lifetime Achievement Award 2020 was conferred to Mr. Raman Kumar for his overall contribution to film and television industry of India. The declaration of awards was held exclusively on Lifft India YouTube Channel. The complete list of Winners for 2020 is available on Lifft India Website, Lifft India Filmotsav Facebook Page and the Lifft India YouTube Channel. For the FOURTH EDITION held in Dec 2020, there is only a specially designed Digital certificate to be shared with all the winners by email.
As part of the book reading session under Literature category, Ms Noor Baig read the excerpts from her latest book of short stories titled A QUAINT ESSENCE.
Lifft India website also hosted the first Digital exhibition of paintings by the artistes from around the world. The paintings are up for sale and ardent art lovers can contact Lifft India for purchase of such paintings.
5TH EDITION
The film submission/entry for the 5th Edition of Lifft India Filmotsav-World Cine Fest opened on 1st July 2021 and the Lifft India Awards 2021 for over 90 categories were declared ‘ONLINE’ on 25th Dec 2021.
The Fifth Edition was also held totally online, during the continued Covid-19 Pandemic, with films being submitted from over 55 countries.
There were over 475 official Selections of films which were further shortlisted to over 105 films to be nominated for LIFFT INDIA AWARDS 2021. Finally there were 100 Awards declared online in various categories on 25th Dec 2021.
6TH EDITION
The film submission/entry for the 6th Edition of Lifft India Filmotsav-World Cine Fest opened on 1st October 2022 and the Lifft India Awards 2022 will be declared online for over 100 categories on 25th Dec 2022.
Lifft india is proud to have earned its presence in over 50 countries in a short span of 5 years to make it an important and prestigious Film Festival and Awards across the globe.
The complete list of winners is available on our Lifft India Filmotsav Facebook Page and Lifft India Website and the Lifft India YouTube Channel
