The US premiere of Rishi Kapoor-Neetu Singh starrer Do Dooni Chaar marked the opening of the eleventh New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), rolling out red carpet to Indian cinema here.

The Walt Disney production was the first in the line up of Indian feature, short films and documentaries to be screened at the four-day festival in Manhattan.

Both Rishi and Neetu walked the red carpet at the opening night gala took part in the post-screening discussion with director Habib Faisal on their return to silver screen after 30 years.

The festival centerpiece will be Iti Mrinalini, a Bengali film directed by Aparna Sen, a 125-minute story of an ageing actress. The cast includes Konkona Sen Sharma, Aparna Sen, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Rajat Kapoor and Koushik Sen.

One of the highlights of the festival is Bhopali, a documentary on Union Carbide gas tragedy in 1984. Directed by Max Carlson, the 89-minute documentary in English stars Noam Chomsky, Satinath Sarangi, Sanjay Verma, Rajan Sharma and Hazra Bee.

The festival will also showcase Notes of Silence, directed by Chennai-based moviemaker Mrinalini DS, telling the the story of an 18-year-old deaf mute girl whose dream is to play the guitar.

The festival brings together a collection of indie films as well as better-known Bollywood fare. More than half the films are screening for the first time or making their US debuts.

The other creatives are The Bengali Detective that explores Indian attitudes towards government institutions and Aamir Bashir's 2010 feature film Harud (Autumn), which tells a story set in Kashmir of a man searching for his brother, a photographer who has disappeared.

Also included is a digitally re-mastered version of Raakh Redux, a 1989 film starring Aamir Khan that won three National Films awards, and The Legend of Rama, a 3D computer animation retelling of the epic tale Ramayana. PRI ENT ESPL INT The Holy Kitchen directed by celebrated New York Indian chef Vikas Khanna, (43 minutes, English, world premiere) talks about the meaning of food in religion with the real world experience of sharing food in a spiritual context.

As a tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary, the festival committee has decided to close the fest on Sunday with Rituparno Ghosh's Noukadubi based on the nobel laureate's novel.

The festival will span four Manhattan venues, the largest of which can house 600 while the others are smaller theaters that can seat around 120.