Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: Odia film ‘Hello Arsi’ has won three awards at the 65th National Film Awards that were announced in New Delhi on Friday afternoon.
The film got the honours for Best Odia Film, Best Dialogue and also a Special Mention.
Commenting on the film, veteran director and chairman of the jury Shekhar Kapur said, “If I try to make that film, I will fail”.
Before announcing the awards, he appreciated the regional cinema being made in the country.
Unfortunately, the director of the film, Sambit Mohanty, is no more. The film was earlier named as ‘Pakhilagna’.
Partha Sarathi Ray and Prakruti Mishra have played the lead pair in the film jointly produced by Sambit Mohanty and Ajay Routray.
An excited Partha said, “I am very happy that our hard work has got the recognition. A few days back, eminent filmmaker Manmohan Mohapatra had praised my work in the movie.”
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also took to Twitter to congratulate the team.
Congratulations to filmmaker Ajaya Routray & director Sambit Mohanty on #NationalFilmAwards for ‘Hello Arsi as Best Odia film. Sambit Mohanty has also won ‘Best Dialogues’ award for the film. Indeed a proud moment for us and the film fraternity of the state. My best wishes
— Naveen Patnaik (@Naveen_Odisha) April 13, 2018
Among others, Assamese film ‘Village Rockstars’ was adjudged Best Film while Vinod Khanna bagged the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
Sridevi has been honoured with the Best Actress award posthumously for her powerful performance in the film ‘MOM’.
Rajkummar Rao-starrer political satire ‘Newton’ has been declared the Best Hindi Feature Film, while actor Pankaj Tripathi has received a special mention for his performance in the film.
Riddhi Sen has won the Best Actor award for Bengali film ‘Nagarkirtan’ and ‘Baahubali’ Best Popular Film award for providing wholesome entertainment.
Best Supporting Actor awards (male and female) have been won by Fahad Fazil for ‘Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum’ and Divya Dutta for ‘Irada’ respectively.
The award ceremony will be held on May 3.
