7 Bengali films eye National Awards

Kolkata: Can Bengali cinema strike gold at the 63rd National Film Awards? A source said at least seven Bengali films have made it to the final round of selections. The 11-member jury headed by director Ramesh Sippy is currently in the process of watching the films before sending their recommendations to the ministry on Monday.
According to sources, two among the seven movies are Kaushik Ganguly films - 'Cinemawallah' that has won the ICFT-Unesco Fellini Prize at the International Film Festival of India this year and 'Vastusaap'.Apart from that, Goutam Ghose's 'Sankhachil' starring Prosenjit Chatterjee and Srijit Mukherji's 'Rajkahini' have also made the cut. Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy's 'Belaseshe' starring Soumitra Chatterjee and Swatilekha Sengupta is also on the list alongside Arindam Sil's 'Har Har Byomkesh'. The unreleased film, 'Cholai' by Arun Roy, which is inspired from the Mograhat hooch tragedy is also one of the contenders .
Kaushik, who has sent Best Actor nominations for the performances by Paran Bandopadhyay and Parambrata Chatterjee in 'Cinemawallah', said, "We have the master of awards Goutam Ghose's film competing this year. Hence, I don't even have the audacity to dream big."
Like every filmmaker, Srijit too is keeping his fingers crossed. "It is a film which is very relevant in today's time. The question raised by 'Rajkahini' is the film's USP. Rituparna Sengupta's in 'Rajkahini' is definitely award-worthy," Srijit said.
308 films were considered for the first round by the jury this year. Four sets of juries watched the films from four different zones and then sent around 85 films to the second round. If Tollywood has thrown up at least seven films in this round, The Malayalam industry has already offered a platter of 10 films for consideration to the jury. when they go for the deliberation from Sunday onwards.
While regional cinema has always made a strong presence at the National Awards,
Apart from regional movies, Bollywood, too, has thrown up some interesting choices this year. This includes Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh-starrer 'Bajirao Mastani', Kangna Ranaut's 'Tanu Weds Manu 2', 'Piku' starring Amitabh Bachchan and Anushka Sharma's 'NH 10'. Salman Khan's 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' and Ayushmann Khurrana's 'Dum Laga Ke Haisha'.
"Then there is 'Duranta' - a sports biopic on the life of Odia child marathoner Budhia Singh - in which that has Manoj Bajpai playing the plays the role of Budhia's coach Birinchi Das. Another film in the race is that is 'Nil Bate Sannata' by debutant director Ashwini Iyer Tiwari. Kalki Koechlin's 'Margarita With A Straw' is also in contention. But films like 'Tamasha', 'Badlapur' and 'ABCD 2' couldn't make it to the second round," said a source.
Now, it's just a matter of a few days before the final decision is taken and the official announcements are made.
Kolkata: Is Bengali cinema likely to strike gold at the 63rd National Film Awards? That's the question haunting film corridors right now. If sources are to be believed, at least seven Bengali films have made it to the final round of selections. The feature film jury headed by director Ramesh Sippy has 11 members, who are currently in the process of watching all the films before sending in their recommendations to the ministry on Monday.
According to sources, among those seven movies are two Kaushik Ganguly films - 'Cinemawallah' that has won the ICFT-Unesco Fellini Prize at the International Film Festival of India this year and 'Vastusaap'. That apart, there is Goutam Ghose's 'Sankhachil' starring Prosenjit Chatterjee. Srijit Mukherji's 'Rajkahini' too, has made the cut.
Then, there is the Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy's 'Belaseshe' starring Soumitra Chatterjee and Swatilekha Sengupta. Arindam Sil's 'Har Har Byomkesh' starring Abir Chatterjee is also in contention. Finally, there is Arun Roy's unreleased 'Cholai' that is inspired by the Mograhat hooch tragedy.
Kaushik, who has sent Best Actor nominations for Paran Bandopadhyay and Parambrata Chatterjee's in 'Cinemawallah', said, "We have the master of awards Goutam Ghose's film competing this year. Hence, I don't even have the audacity to dream big about awards." Like every film-maker, Srijit too is keeping his fingers crossed. "It is a film which is very relevant in today's time. The question raised by 'Rajkahini' is the film's USP. Rituparna Sengupta's in 'Rajkahini' is definitely award-worthy," Srijit said.
As many as 308 films were considered for the first round by the jury this time. Four sets of juries watched the films from four different zones and sent some 85 films to the second round. If Tollywood has thrown up at least seven films in this round, Malayalam industry has offered a platter of 10 films for consideration to the jury when they go for the deliberation from Sunday onwards.
While regional cinema has always made a strong presence at the National Awards, Bollywood too has thrown up some interesting choices this year. That includes Deepika Padukone-Ranveer Singh's 'Bajirao Mastani', Kangna Ranaut's 'Tanu Weds Manu 2', Amitabh Bachchan's 'Piku', Anushka Sharma's 'NH 10', Salman Khan's 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' and Ayushmann Khurrana's 'Dum Laga Ke Haisha'. "Then there is 'Duranta' - a sports biopic on the life of Odia child marathoner Budhia Singh that has Manoj Bajpai playing the role of Budhia's coach Birinchi Das. Another interesting film that is 'Nil Bate Sannata' by first-time director Ashwini Iyer Tiwari. Kalki Koechlin's 'Margarita With A Straw' is also in contention. But films like 'Tamasha', 'Badlapur' and ABCD 2' couldn't make it the second round," says a source.
Now, it's just a matter of a few days before the final decision is taken and the official announcements made.