Assam govt sanctions additional Rs 50 lakh to Rima Das

Rima Das, director and producer of 'Village Rockstars' which is India's official entry for the 2019 Oscars in the Best Foreign Language film category, will receive an additional Rs 50 lakh from the Assam government as announced by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal Friday, a government release said.

The state government had earlier granted Rs 50 lakh to Das.

Now a total amount of Rs one crore will be provided to the filmmaker, said a government release here.

Das had called on the chief minister and expressed her happiness over the selection of 'Village Rockstars' as India's official entry to the Oscars and thanked the Assam government and its people for the ''tremendous support'' to her.

Sonowal extended his best wishes to the filmmaker for the ''incredible success'' of her film and hoped that it would be able to win the Oscars in Best Foreign Language film category apart from highlighting the state's quintessential splendour in front of the global audience.

Rima had on Thursday sought help from the government to promote her film for the award as at least Rs three crore is needed to campaign at the Oscars and to ensure that it makes it to the final nomination.

Das said 'Village Rockstars' has travelled to 80 film festivals and has won 44 awards so far. It was screened in Toronto, Berlin, Cannes and Venice festivals.

The film will be released pan India though PVR today with the premiere show held here last night.

'Village Rockstars' is the story about a poor girl aspiring to be a rockstar iand s set in her own village at Chayagaon near here. It has won four national awards, including the 'Swarna Kamal' for the best film.