Rima Das’ ‘Bulbul Can Sing’ Bags Golden Gateway Award at MAMI

A still from Bulbul Can Sing.

(Photo courtesy: Twitter)

Filmmaker Rima Das' Assamese feature "Bulbul Can Sing" bagged the prestigious Golden Gateway Award at the 20th edition of Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star on Thursday, 1 November.

The film marks her second consecutive win at MAMI, after her last year's victory run with "Village Rockstars", which is India's entry to Oscars.

"Bulbul Can Sing" is a coming-of-age drama about a teenage girl, Bulbul, living in a village in Assam, fighting her way through love and loss as she figures out who she really is.

Dedicating the award to her mother, Das sought "blessings and love" for the Oscar journey of "Village Rockstars".

“I am giving this award to my mom. Last time Village Rockstars received three awards at MAMI and this is our first win for this film. I’d like to thank the universe and God for giving me so much strength,” she said, The Indian Express reported.

She also recounted an incident from her childhood days to express how her mother has always been the “empowering” factor in her life. Narrating the incident, she said that once when her brother had refused to go along with her to the shoot of an Assamese TV show, her mother asked her why she couldn’t just go alone to the set.

So, thank you Mom for pushing me in the real world. I’m so blessed that I’m doing what I love to do. I am so happy that cinema is giving me so much freedom to create my world and characters.

Rima Das, as reported by <i>The Indian Express</i>

American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky was also presented an award- the prestigious Excellence in Cinema award, by filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj.

I have been to Mumbai a few times and I love the city because it is insane. It’s more insane than New York. (It has) incredible people and food. More important, it is a great fountain of movies. I am thankful for this honour. I am very happy that my films are watched here.

Darren Aronofsky

The Silver Gateway, India Gold award was shared by "The Gold Laden Sheep and The Sacred Mountain by Ridham Janve and "Jonaki" by Aditya Vikram Sengupta. "Jonaki" also got a special mention for the Oxfam award.

Kabir Chowdhry's "Mehsampur" bagged the grand jury prize for India Gold. The awards were presented by filmmakers Lucrecia Martel, Martin Sulik and Soudade Kaadan.

(With inputs from PTI)