Jaya-starrer “Bishorjon” wins Indian Nat'l Film Award

The winners' list of the 64th Indian National Film Awards was announced on Friday morning, with Sonam Kapoor-starrer “Neerja”, directed by Ram Madhvani, was declared as the Best Hindi Feature Film. Akshay Kumar bagged the Best Actor award for his act in “Rustom” while Best Actress went to Surabhi Lakshmi for Malayalam film Minnaminungu. Kaushik Ganguly's film “Bishorjon” starring Bangladesh's very own Jaya Ahsan, was named the Best Bangla Film at the award. The film, also starring Abir Chatterjee from Kolkata, is set to release next weekend marking Pahela Baishakh.

Over 300 films vied for the highest honours in Indian film this year. The process to choose the best from Indian cinema began in mid-March. Filmmaker Priyadarshan was the chairperson of the jury in feature films category, while nationally-acclaimed cinematographer and writer Raju Misra was the chairperson in non-feature category.

Jaya also shared her excitement on social media on getting the news, posting a photo on Facebook with co-star Abir, captioning it “Bishorjon wins the best Bangla film at the national awards of India. We're happy, and we share this happiness with you.”

Alongside Jaya, who is playing the role of Padma and Abir Chatterjee, Kaushik Ganguly, renowned for making films like “Shabdo”, “Apur Panchali” and “Arekti Premer Golpo”, portrays a special role in it. The film is reportedly a love story between a Bangladeshi widow and an Indian man. Kalikaprasad Bhattacharya, the recently-deceased musician-composer, had done music for the film.

Jaya has been getting increasingly busy with big screen projects across the border, with releases like “Abarto”, “Eagoler Chokh” (both directed by Arindam Shil), “Ekti Bangali Bhooter Goppo” (by Indranil Roy Chowdhury) and “Rajkahini” (by Srijit Mukherjee, which has just been remade in Hindi as 'Begum Jaan”). Her latest big project in Bangladesh is “Debi”, based on a Humayun Ahmed novel centering one of his most iconic fictional characters – Misir Ali. The film, that went on the floors last month, also stars Chanchal Chowdhury, Iresh Zaker, Animesh Aich and Sabnam Faria.