Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali Khan starrer Life Goes On has been declared the Best Film at the Pravasi Film Festival which concluded on Wednesday.
A jury, including veteran filmmaker Basu Chatterjee and Bollywood director Rahul Rawail, named the Sangeeta Datta directed film the winner in the Feature Film category.
“My film is a small independent venture and this festival was a good platform to reach out to people. It is important to have known faces in your film as it adds to visibility,” Datta told PTI.
Actors Om Puri and Girish Karnad play prominent roles in the film which centres around a Bengali family living in the UK.
“This award shows that good work can be done with very little money and resources. This is my first directorial venture and it feels good to be appreciated,” said the UK-based filmmaker, who has previously assisted director Rituparno Ghosh in Antarmahal.
The four-day festival, aimed at bringing the works of diasporic directors closer home, had eminent directors like Deepa Mehta and Mira Nair attending the event.
“My mantra is that the more local, authentic and truthful a film is to its roots, the larger is its universal appeal. I am very glad to be here at this festival since it is this society and culture that I seek to portray in my films,” said Mira Nair, who was present at the closing ceremony.
The director’s Namesake was screened on the last day of the festival, one of the 35 films from all around the world shown in the past four days including Mehta’s Earth.
Veteran NRI actor Saeed Jaffrey was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award, which the London-based actor could not receive personally, but sent a message saying, “I am overwhelmed by this honour. At last India has remembered me.”
D.K. Krishna and Raj Nidimoru’s Shor won in the Best Short Film category while Navdeep Khandola’s Flying Sikh was adjudged the Best Short Non-fiction Film.
Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpai, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Ramesh Pokhriyal and High Commissioner of Mauritius Mukeshwar Chunni were also present at the ceremony.
