New York, May 15 (IANS): Filmmaker Hansal Mehta's "Aligarh" was chosen as the closing film of the 16th annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF).

The festival, which concluded on Saturday, screens feature, documentary and short films made from, of, and about the Indian subcontinent in the independent, art-house, alternate and diaspora genres every year.

"Aligarh" is based on the real life incident of Srinivas Ramchandra Siras, an academician at the Aligarh Muslim University who was suspended from his job because of his sexual orientation. The film stars Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao.

Before attending the fest, Rajkummar took to Twitter on Saturday night and wrote: "Going to one of my favourite cities in the world. New York. 'Aligarh' has been chosen as the closing film of the prestigious New York Indian film festival."

Mehta was excited that the American city would witness their "labour of love".

"Aligarh" has been lauded at many film festivals, including Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, where it received a special mention.