Village Rockstars fetches best feature film award

* Best Assamese film award goes to Ishu

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, April 13: Film director and producer Rima Das and her team have done Assam proud by gifting its people some invaluable gifts on the eve of the Assamese New Year.The gifts are set to make this Bohag more memorable than ever before.

Village Rockstars, a low-budget Assamese feature film set in a Kamrup village with simple technology, has fetched the Best Feature Film Award, 2017 – Swarna Kamal – to its director-producer Rima Das, stunning her Bollywood counterparts at the 65th National Film Awards.  The awards were declared on Friday in Delhi by the Directorate of Film Festivals. Besides Rima Das, while Bhanita Das has bagged the best child actor award, Mallika Das has bagged the best Audiography Award (location and sound recordis) and the best editing award by Rima Das herself. This is a feat by the film fraternity of Assam after three decades. The last such award was bagged by Halodhiya Choraye Baodhan Khai in 1988 by Jahnu Barua.  

The success by Village Rockstars cannot be rated with any of its kinds on the ground that  this is a low-budget film done with a simple technology. This is not all. Almost all the actors in the films are not professional. They even cannot be called as amateur artistes as they have never acted in any film other than this, nor have they got any training on acting.

Wherewithal was the major problem while making the film as Rima Das had to get the film done with her parents’ money.  The film took long three years.  

While Rima Das will receive Rs 2,50,000 each as the director and producer of the film, besides the Swarna Kamal, best child artiste Bhanita Das is to get Rs 50,000 besides the Rajat Kamal, Mallika Das is to get Rs 50,000 besides the Rajat Kamal and Rima Das is to get Rs 50,000 as the best editing award besides the Rajat Kamal.

The plot of the film is an interior village in Kamrup district – near Chhaygaon. The very dialect used in the film is the one spoken commonly in South Kamrup.

Talking to the media, Rima Das said: “I’m elated to have got this news. I thank the entire village, my family, Village Rockstars family and the media for supporting and inspiring me. I thank God for the achievement.”

Mallika Das said: “I had no formal training on audiography. All that I did is what Rima Das taught me.”

Meanwhile, the best Assamese film award has gone to Ishu, produced by Children Film Society and directed by Utpal Borpujari. Borpujari and the producer are to get Rs 1,00,000, besides the Rajat Kamal each.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal congratulated the award winners for making it to the coveted list of the 65th National Film Awards. “It’s a proud moment for Assamese cinema as Rima Das’ directorial venture Village Rockstars has been named the Best Feature Film at the 65th National Film Awards. I congratulate the young filmmaker for this achievement. The success of her film would surely usher in a new beginning for Assamese film industry”, Sonowal said.

Sonowal also congratulated the Best Child Artist award winner Bhanita Das and Best Location Sound Recordist award winner Mallika Das, both from Village Rockstars on achieving the feat.

The Chief Minister also hailed the achievement of Utpal Borpujari, whose film Ishu bagged the Best Feature Film award in the regional language (Assamese) category.