The 12th annual New York Indian Film Festival opened on May 23 at the Paris Theater in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

The 12th annual New York Indian Film Festival opened Wednesday at the Paris Theater in Midtown Manhattan with a red carpet premier of Bedabrata Pain's movie "Chittagong," followed by a dinner at the Jumeirah Essex House on Central Park South.

The five-day showcase of 40 features, short films and documentaries is presented by the Indo-American Arts Council, a Manhattan-based non-profit which supports all forms of Indian-influenced art. Many of the screenings are following by question-and-answer sessions with filmmakers and casts.

High-profile celebrities who turned out for the debut include Indian-American actors Manu Narayan, Ajay Naidu and Samrat Chakrabarti, British actress Sarita Choudhury, Bollywood filmmaker Shyam Benegal and Bollywood actor Suneil Anand, who is the son of legendary filmmaker and actor Dev Anand.

Though the IACC doesn’t try to connect the films screened each year by a specific theme, festival director Aseem Chhabra said that several of the prominent ones this year have young child actors as leads. “The commonality evolved organically,” he said.

The movie that evening, for example, is a true story set in 1930s British India about the journey of 14-year-old Jhunku to find his place in the tumultuous environment around him. Other films with pint-size stars include “Bubble Gum,” a two-hour story about a teenage boy who resents the attention his parents give his deaf older brother, and “Gattu,” which won several prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year and is about a street urchin who becomes fixated on kite flying.

Bollywood actor Suneil Anand, far left, shakes hands with Bollywood filmmaker Shyam Benegal, far right,
at the New York Indian Film Festival.

Other highlights include a retrospective trilogy of Benegal’s classics “Zubeida,” “Mammo” and “Sardari” and a screening of Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Oscar winning Pakistani Short Film “Saving Face.”

But much of the excitement seemed to be around the Saturday evening tribute to Dev Anand, who passed away in December. The commemoration will be presented alongside a new colorized version of his 1961 hit film, “Hum Dono Rangeen,” which is being shown outside of India for the first time.

Mr. Anand’s son Suneil is attending the festival and told India Ink he wanted to be on hand to support his father. “I feel elated that we are celebrating my dad and his work, but it’s also an emotional experience especially since he is no longer here.”

Bedabrata Pain, left, director and producer of the film “Chittagong” at the 12th annual New York Indian Film Festival.

Opening night also was a poignant time for the Los Angeles-based filmmaker Mr. Pain, who lost his 16-year-old son to an accident while directing “Chittagong.” “He was the movie’s biggest supporter,” he said. But he added that he chose to focus his story around a teenage boy not because he is a father himself but because he believes that India’s future lies with its youth. “The young generation today has such a passion and confidence,” he said. “They are the ones who will shape the India that is to come.”