Rani Mukherjee collected her trophy last night at the V Shantaram Awards ceremony held in honour of the late great film-maker, responsible for many significant films of the golden era of the 1950s including the classic Do Aankhen Barah Haath. Rani’s award was in recognition of her performance in Dil Bole Hadippa. “This feels great because getting a V. Shantaram award means a lot to me,” she said, “We all know that we are the unfortunate ones who were not born in his era and didn’t get an opportunity to work with him.”
Prakash Raj won the Best Male Actor Award for his role in Kanchivaram, a gripping tale of poverty in India near the end of British colonial rule and the political forces that will help to shape India’s destiny. The film was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008 and has gone on to win several awards. It co-stars Shriya Reddy. Kanchivaram also won the Best Film Gold Award.
The Marathi film Gabhricha Paus won the Silver Award. The film highlights the plight of farmers in drought-stricken Maharashtra leading to high rates of suicide as they struggle against environmental change and the lack of any coherent government strategy for agricultural support. The film stars Sonali Kulkarni.
On the 50th anniversary of her ht musical Navrang, Sandhya picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award. Sandhya was the third wife of the late film-maker V Shantaram.
