Kolkata:
Bengali film director Srijit Mukherji today dedicated his best director award at the National Film Awards to late filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh.
“I dedicate the award to Ritu da (Rituparno Ghosh) and to the rest of the team who was involved in it. Ritu da was a part and parcel of the team who made Chotushkone,” Mukherji said.
Released last year, Bengali film ‘Chotushkone’ is about the story of four directors who are from different backgrounds.
The cast includes three National Award-winning directors - Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen and Kaushik Ganguly.
‘Chotushkone’ also won best screenplay award and best cinematography award at the National Film Awards announced today.
Rituparno, who passed away two years ago, was also supposed to act in the film which was on the cards for a long time. Actor Parambrata Chatterjee had to be roped in to play the role later on.
“We faced a lot of difficulties in making the film but now we all are feeling very good that it has got a national recognition,” Mukherji, who had debuted with the superhit ‘Autograph’ in 2010, said.
Since then his subsequent films like ‘Baishe Srabon’, ‘Hemlock Society’, ‘Mishawr Rawhoshyo’ and ‘Jaatishwar’ have gone on to score big success. ‘Chotushkone’ was his fifth film.
His next film ‘Nirbaak’ will be released in May. He is currently shooting for ‘Rajkahini’, a film set in 1947.
The director said he was confident that ‘Chotushkone’, which uses the film-within-a-film format to narrate a tale of love, betrayal and revenge, would be accepted by a wide audience.
“It is an unconventional tale, but we were always confident. At the box office it created a record run of 100 days,” the 37-year-old leading director said.
His earlier release ‘Jaatishwar’ starring Prosenjit had won four national awards in the categories of best male playback singer, best costume design, best music direction and best makeup artist in 2014.
