Photos: Sandip Soparrkar Jesse Randhawa open 14th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) with a dance

Indians can no longer be proud as a peacock, our national bird is being pushed to the brink of extinction. Poaching, indiscriminate use of pesticides and lax laws to nab those who kill the peacocks for their feathers, all add up to an endangered peacock population. Indian national bird the gorgeous peacock is struggling for survival, the peacock population is also dwindling fast due to habitat loss.

Bollywood ace choreographer Sandip Soparrkar took initiative to spread awareness about "Save our Peacock". Sandip Soparrkar along with his beautiful supermodel dance partner and his talented team performed on the theme of “Save our National bird Peacock” at opening ceremony of the 14th edition of Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) which began on Thursday at the Ravindra Natya Mandir, in presence of honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr. Devendra Fadnavis, Honourable Minister of State of Information and Broadcasting Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, festival director Mr. Mukesh Sharma, filmmakers Mike Pandey, Shyam Benegal, Subhash Ghai and brand ambassador of MIFF actor Jackie Shroff.

The performance began with Sandip playing the evil hunter, Jesse waltzed in and stole the show dressed as the gorgeous peacock who is captured and then forcefully made to perform at a bird show and later killed for its feathers only to be having fans made out of it for yet another show. At the end Sandip presented a very emotional scene of the evil hunter's daughter requesting him to show her a live Dancing Peacock. That is when he apologies to one and all for the numerous mistake he had made as a evil hunter. Each and everyone present at the ceremony praised the wonderful concept and initiative that Sandip, Jesse and their team took through this 25 min dance drama.

At the occasion Sandip Soparrkar said, "Jesse and me feel extremely honoured to dance at the opening ceremony of 14th MIFF, dancing a beautiful theme dance about safety of Peacock, in front of so many eminent personalities makes us feel humbled. I am glad as an artist I can not just entertain but even educate."

Actor Aman Verma hosted this beautiful evening of international dignitaries. At the ceremony Mr. Naresh Bedi a renowned film maker was presented with the Dr. V Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the world of documentary filmmaking.

The week-long festival will see a total 385 films screened across three different formats with 30 of them contending for the International Competition section and 27 in the National Competition section.