Stills from Aligarh and The Revenant.
Manoj Bajpayee's film
Aligarh releases today. The Hansal Mehta-directed film documents the real life story of Professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), who was persecuted and ostracised for being gay.
Manoj plays the protagonist and Rajkummar Rao plays a journalist who reveals his story to the world. Manoj also told news agency IANS that
Aligarh was a challenging film. (Also Read:
What Anurag Kashyap Has to Say About Manoj Bajpayee's Aligarh)
"
Aligarh was a very challenging film for me because it was fragile and different. It was very difficult to capture the loneliness and state of mind of Ramchandra Siras," he said.
The trailer of
Aligarh was quite impressive as several Bollywood stars including filmmaker Karan Johar had praised the film. Karan had tweeted that "
Aligarh is exceptionally poignant, moving and heart breaking."
The sequel to the 2010 film
Tere Bin Laden,
Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive also releases today. It casts Manish Paul, Piyush Mishra, Sikander Kher and Sugandha Garg.
Other Hindi films such as
Bollywood Diaries,
Dhara 302,
Jab Tum Kaho,
Love Shagun and
Rhythm also hit screens today.
Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio's
The Revenant will represent Hollywood today. The action adventure film directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has received several accolades at international award shows like The Golden Globes.
The Revenant is also vying for the top spot at Monday's Academy Awards and Leonardo is also expected to win Best Actor after several snubs.
Alex Proyas'
Gods Of Egypt also releases today. The film stars Gerard Butler, Brenton Thwaites and Courtney Eaton.
Gods Of Egypt, which is a fantasy drama, is based on a young thief, who takes on the God of Darkness, Set, with the help of Horus to save his lover, who was held captive by Set.