This is a big day for the team Gulmohar. The Rahul V Chittella directorial has won the Best Hindi Film award at the 70th National Film Awards. The announcement ceremony was held on Friday. Gulmohar also received a special mention and was recognized for best screenplay. Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore who made her OTT debut Gulmohar, spoke to NDTV and shared his joy. He said, “Thank you so much. We didn’t expect it. I’m over the moon. It’s so well deserved. Rahul V Chittela is a first-time director. The film has had such an amazing journey because of the audience response…And then many many awards from all forums .Obviously the national award is the icing on the cake.And I am absolutely thrilled about this… Manoj [Bajpayee] also get a special offer. I think it’s wonderful and I’m so happy for Rahul and for all of us. Gulmohar is veteran actress Sharmila Tagore’s third National Film Award. Earlier, he won the National Film Awards Mausam (1976)and Abar Aranye (2003).
Gulmohar was released directly on the OTT platform Disney Plus Hotstar. In an interview, Sharmila Tagore was asked if she thinks there is going to be a game changer for OTT when it comes to movies. He said: “You see a film is a film and you can’t really tell the difference. It’s obviously great to see it on the big screen… It’s really not comparable. There’s a huge difference between the small screen and the big screen. If we’d thought of releasing theatrically instead of OTT, it I think it would have been great. But at the time we didn’t know, the producers didn’t know it would be a success. And a movie is a movie, like I said. Shovel the ladies was released on the big screen and I’m sure it would have done brilliantly if it had been released on OTT as well. So Gulmohar just happened to be on OTT. Don’t compare it. OTT had more appetite for our kind of film.
Speaking to news agency ANI after the big win, Manoj Bajpayee said, “It’s such a big achievement for the entire team and the director whose first film won three national awards.”
