Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Bajirao Mastani" has landed five nominations, including in the Best Film category, at the 10th Asian Film Awards, where "The Assassin" is the front-runner with nine nominations.

"Bajirao Mastani" will compete with Chinese director Jia Zhangke's "Mountains May Depart", Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "The Assassin", Japanese director Ryosuke Hashiguchi's "Three Stories of Love", Chinese film director Guan Hu's "Mr. Six" and South Korean director's Ryoo Seung-wan "Veteran" for the Best Film trophy.

Besides getting nominated for the Best Film category, "Bajirao Mastani" has also earned nominations for Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Music and Best Editing.


However, "Bajirao Mastani" isn't the only Indian film to be nominated at the AFA. "Masaan", "Talvar", "Bombay Velvet" and "Baahubali: The Beginning" also received nominations in different categories.

"Masaan" actor Vicky Kaushal is nominated for Best Newcomer, Vishal Bhardwaj for Best Screenplay ("Talvar"), Amit Trivedi for Best Original Music ("Bombay Velvet") and Srinivas Mohan ("Baahubali: The Beginning") for Best Visual Effects.

For this edition, 77 nominations have been made for 15 awards. The nominations represent 36 films from nine countries, read a statement on the Asian Film Awards' official website.

Organised by the Asian Film Awards Academy, the awards gala will be held on March 17 at the Venetian Theater in Macau.