68th National Awards: Marathi films Sumi and Me Vasantrao win in two categories

“I am glad to receive the National Award…The credit goes to the director, Nipun Dharmadhikari, the producers and the entire sound department. I enjoyed composing songs for this film as well as acting, and all of us had a great time. We had to face many obstacles while shooting but each and every second of that journey was special and satisfying. I am happy to be recognised for the effort. I accept the award humbly and thank the jury and the entire team,” added Deshpande.

Marathi cinema won big at the National Awards as Amol Gole’s film Sumi also received two awards — Best Children’s Film as well as the Best Child Artiste award for its lead actors Akanksha Pingle and Divyesh Indulkar.

“I would like to give credit to both the child actors as they have played the biggest role in achieving the award. I would also like to acknowledge director Amol Gupte, as it is the experience I have had with him with films like Taare Zameen Par, and Stanley ka Dabba… he is my guru and I owe it all to him. The film is a dedication to each and everyone who struggled for their education and completed it successfully,” said Gole.

“I was ecstatic when my father rushed in to tell me the news. Amol sir was very confident that I will get the award as he appreciated my work in his film but I was still unsure… My parents had taken quite some effort to have me in this field…the shoot was a very enriching experience and I got to learn a lot under Gole sir,” said 17-year-old Akanksha Pingle, now a junior college student of DY Patil College.

“I do not have words to express how elated I am at her achievement. People have been visiting us and conveying their regards. All due credit goes to Gole sir for her achievement…it is the national award, nothing is bigger than that,” added her father, Laxman Pingle.

“I have worked in short films and advertisements before but this was my first feature film. I am happy and celebrations are already underway…I give Gole sir the due credit for his guidance throughout the film and I thoroughly enjoyed working in the film with my co-star Akansha,” said 15-year-old Indulkar, a resident of Dadar, Mumbai.

In Mumbai, where he has been living for more than a decade, actor Siddharth Menon was having a regular day when he heard that he had won the Special Mention for the Marathi film June. The actor, who was born in Pune and grew up here, said, “I was preparing for something else and this announcement happened… and it became crazy. It is unexpected and the emotions are yet to be registered. This film is very close to my heart and I have had the good fortune of working in it since it is a work that crosses several boundaries and is difficult to box into a single definition. We thought this film was very important; it’s tagline was ‘Healing is Beautiful’.”

Tak-Tak by Vishal Kudale, an FTII alumnus, has won its lone star, Anish Gosavi, the Best Child Artist in Feature Films. The film is about a schoolboy who wakes up in his classroom only to find that the school has a three-day holiday, forcing him to learn to survive and come to terms with certain truths.