Manoj Bajpayee happy at Filmfare's recognition of short films

National award winning actor Manoj Bajpayee who bagged the Jio Filmfare Short Film Awards Best Actor prize for "Taandav", expressed his happiness on the encouragement of short content in digital platform.

"It's actually an honour for immensely gifted director Devashish Makhija and muvizz.com. I am so happy that Filmfare thought of recognising the value of short films as a creative platform to showcase ones potential," Manoj told IANS on email, after the announcement of the winners.

Meanwhile, "Chutney", "Khamakha" and "Matitali Kusti" bagged the awards in Best Film (Fiction), People's Choice Award for Best Film and Best Film (Non-Fiction) categories respectively.

Among the 45 films that were nominated, several had prominent names from Bollywood attached - be it Sunny Leone ("11 minutes"), Huma Qureshi and Gauhar Khan ("Ek Dopahar") to Manoj Bajpayee ("Ouch" and "Taandav"), Nimrat Kaur ("Elaychi"), Piyush Mishra ("Kathakaar), Swanand Kirkire("Toyhouse") among others.

"Matitali Kusti"'s young director Prantik Vivek Deshmukh said: "Winning a Filmfare Award at 24 is a dream come true for an aspiring filmmaker like me. This is beyond my imagination. I would like to thank Filmfare for honoring me on such a huge platform. I want to graduate to making feature length films some day and the short film format definitely acts as a bridge towards that."

Based on the traditional mud wrestling, the non-fiction film is a fragment of reality. As his intention was to bring that on screen, Deshmukh added: "I hope this film will not only help in reviving traditional mud wrestling but also in reducing the struggles and the pains of the modern day traditional 'Pehelwans' (wrestlers). It will also help in sustaining the values and culture of our country."

Talking about the film "Khamakha" that won People's Choice Award for Best Film, director Aarti S. Bagdi said: "'Khamakha' as an idea came to me because of my husband Arun, when he mentioned how you end up judging people during your travels by the way they talk, or their language or their clothes. Everything that is so external. I decided to stress on a Pride and Prejudice on Languages."

With the short film is getting more appreciation by the mainstream actors and influential Bollywood film personalities, Bagdi said: "Short films are the simplest way to discover your own voice. With the revered and extremely loved Filmfare coming out and recognizing shorts in such a grand way, it's going to open up a talent flood that will feel extremely liberating!"

The actual award ceremony, hosted by superstar Shah Rukh Khan and filmmaker Karan Johar, will be held on Saturday night at NSCI Dome in Worli.

--IANS

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