Maneka Gandhi to host special screening of ‘Lion’

Mumbai, Feb 20 (IANS) Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi will host a special screening of the Oscar-nominated film "Lion" here. The invite list includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the movie's distributor has said.

Cabinet ministers and other dignitaries will be invited for the screening later this week before the film's release on Friday, read a statement.

"We are glad that a person of such repute such as Maneka Gandhi has expressed her desire to host a screening of 'Lion'. It's for a wise cause and thought and currently we are in process of setting up the screening in the coming week in Delhi," Avinaash Jumani, CEO at Pictureworks (film's distributor in India), said in a statement.

Gandhi, an animal rights activist and environmentalist, recently achieved success in tracking down 100 children and she is going to reunite them with their parents next month.

The fact that it finds resonance with the story of "Lion" -- about an Indian boy who when separated from his biological family, is adopted by an Australian couple in Australia and then years later, he finds his lost family using Google Earth -- makes it apt for Gandhi to host the screening.

Even the makers of "Lion" had started The #LIONHEART Campaign for helping street children, by joining hands with India-based NGO Magic Bus, Childline and Railway Children.

Directed by Garth Davis, the movie is based on Saroo Brierley's best-selling autobiography "A Long Way Home". It features child actor Sunny Pawar, with Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman in pivotal roles.

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