THE AAROHI Film Society brought new-aspiring film-makers and Bollywood personalities together under the same roof at second Annual Aarohi Film Festival 2009, which was held at Fun Cinemas, Andheri (W), Mumbai, on May 20, 2009. The Aarohi Film Festival showcased the best innovative work by independent aspiring film-makers from amongst 400 entries, which were received from across the country.

The festival provided audiences with abundant opportunities to experience a film festival with difference. In addition to the three competition categories, independent short films, animation and ad-films, a special screening was conducted to showcase short films with social messages, which were not part of the competition.

The show was fevered by ‘Anuraag ke raag’ - Anuraag Pandey who welcomed all the dignitaries on the Red Carpet and captivated every ones attention with his lingual prowess. He introduced Aarohi Film Society as an organisation which promotes cinematic talent by providing a podium which any aspiring film maker could use to showcase his talent and existing film makers, for scouting talent in various capacities of film making and animation.

The main function started with the lamp-lighting ceremony and followed by felicitation of the chief guest JP Dange, Revenue Secretary, Revenue and District Department and Rahul Takalkar, Business Head Fun Cinemas, West Region. The jury board comprised of Sanjay Gupta, Onir, Mayank Shekhar, Vivek Singhania, Niranjan Iyengar, Suresh Nair, Ramesh Ram, Amitabha Singh, Neil Sadwelkar, Kireet Khurana and CB Arun, who were present at the event to render full support to participants.

The screening session began with special screening of social films, followed by ad films, animations and then short films.

The most awaiting part of the show was the award ceremony where the winners were honoured with the awards. Apart from the awards based on various films categories; young-talented actress Prachi Desai was felicitated with the youth choice award, Raj kumar Gupta received the youth choice 'Best Director' award and young budding music talent Amit Trivedi was awarded the ‘Youth choice Best Music Director’.

Kenneth Dias received an award for ‘Best Concept’ for his film ‘The Chair’(ad-film), whilst Akshay Dandekar’s Film ‘Naco’ bagged ‘Best Ad-Film’ award. Insiya Dariwala received Best Director award for her film ‘Candyman’ whilst Pistulya directed by Nagraj Manjule bagged ‘The Best Film’ in the short films category.

Dinesh Pujari’s ‘For A Moment’ received an award for ‘Best Editing’ whilst Niyati Kamdar bagged the ‘Best Concept’ award for her film ‘The Last Argument’. Vipin Bapu bagged ‘Best Concept’ award for his film ‘Influenche’ and Kiraat Gurung’s film ‘My Friend Noju’ bagged an award for the ‘Best Film’ in the animation films category. Finally the ‘Audience choice’ award went to ‘Kaun Azaad Hua’ directed by Amber Saleem.

Celebrities who walked the Red Carpet and graced the occasion in support of this cause were Prachi Desai, Tushar Kapoor, Makrand Deshpande, Toshi Sabarwal, Indian Idol Prashant Tamang, Parthiv Gohil, Manasi Parekh, Teejay Sidhu, Karanvir, Rajkumar Gupta, Sai Deodhar, Ganesh Venkatraman, Nakul Mehta and Netra Raghuraman to name a few.