Mumbai, Sep 23 (IANS) After screening his film 'Cooking With Stella' at the Toronoto International Film Festival, Dilip Mehta went to Cinfest Sudbury with his directorial debut that kickstarted the event.

'Seema Biswas and I flew to Sudbury where our film was opening the Cinefest Sudbury International Film Festival. The unusual feature for the Gala opening was that the film was shown simultaneously in four theaters and each theater was packed,' Dilip told IANS on phone from Toronto.

'Seema and I were thrilled with the response 'Cooking With Stella' received. At a reception following the screening, Seema was mobbed by the invitees who had remembered her strong performance in (Dilip's sister) Deepa's 'Water'. We returned to Toronto on Sunday and Seema continued on to London and then Mumbai,' he added.

The light comedy revolves around the family of a Canadian diplomat Maya (Lisa Ray), her husband Michael (Don McKellar), their cook Stella (Seema Biswas) and nanny Tannu (Shriya Saran).

While the Sudbury film festival started Sep 19, the Atlantic Halifax festival too opened same day.

'My film once again opened the festival. Our producer David Hamilton represented the film and did the honours. And according to him, the response in Halifax was the same. The audience loved the film, performances, humour, and biting satire.

'On the 25th of September we go to Edmonton where my film is once again opening the international film festival,' said Dilip.