Jackie Shroff's 'Shunyata' wins international award

Actor Jackie Shroff's short film "Shunyata" has won an award at Best of India Short Film Festival in Los Angeles, US.

The 22-minute fiction film directed by Chintan Sarda was selected to be in top six from amongst thousands of entries and was played at a theatre in Los Angeles for a ticketed event for a week. An industry based jury then adjudged it the best film, read a statement.

The award ceremony was held at Mack Sennett Studios on March 3. The prize includes a cash prize of $1,000.

"It was an absolute honour to be a part of this film festival and to be hosted in LA by them. Jackie sir and all our talented HODs made this film happen and I am very grateful to all of them," Sarda said.

"We are overwhelmed by this award and others that the film has managed to garner in the past few months. It shows us that somewhere our efforts to connect to the audience have worked to an extent.

"I am hoping this to be a stepping stone to bigger formats. I am pitching my feature film and original series scripts in Mumbai and hoping to direct a lot more short films in the future too," he added.

In "Shunyata", Jackie is seen as hitman Madhur, who leads a gloomy existence with regrets. He is friendly with a child, who lives on the street and sees him getting into the world of crime.

The film was entirely shot at night. It is produced by Sarda and Sunil Khedekar.

--IANS

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