CHENNAI: Director Priyadarshan’s 'Kanchivaram', which has bagged two awards at the 55th National Awards, may not have lasted even a week in the theatres in the State, but is only the second Tamil film to have won a National Award in the Best Film category. That too, 17 years after yet another Malayali director Sethumadhavan’s Marupakkam first bagged the honour for Kollywood.
“I never cared if anybody would want to see my film and that gave me immense freedom in filming it,” says Priyadarshan.
He adds that he made the film without any commercial interests in mind to ‘prove a point’ — to hit back at critics who have criticised his comedies in Bollywood.
The film, set in Kancheepuram, is the story of a communist silk weaver who tries to fulfil his promise of gifting his daughter a silk saree for her wedding.
According to the citation, the film has been given the award “for presenting a rare portrayal of Kanchi’s silk weaver community and the internal struggle of a weaver caught between his ideals and personal dreams.”
“I narrated to Prakash Raj the story and then requested him to reduce his fee for it. He walked out of the place immediately and called back later to say he walked out because he did not want to cry in front of me. That showed how much he respected the film. He chased me to do it,” Priyadarshan says.
He also revealed that Prakash Raj had, at some point, even offered to produce the film himself. Percept Picture Company and Four Frames later produced the film.
This is Prakash Raj’s third National Award. The popular character artiste has battled it out with leading mainstream heroes like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan to win it. The actor even refused to take money for the film, which was shot at a shoestring budget of Rs 1.01 crore.
Interestingly, the movie was completed in 30 days, shot in its actual chronological order.
“It was a winner of a script, and Kanchivaram is the reason I respect myself as an actor today. But I am happier for the film which has won the Best Film Award,” explains Prakash Raj, who is currently in Karnataka shooting for a Kannada film Manjina Hani. Prakash Raj had earlier won the Best Supporting Actor Award (Iruvar) and Special Jury Award (Dhaya).
“When I want to make films for the people, I do comedies. Then people think I am a buffoon. This is my 25th year as a filmmaker, and I made this movie for myself,” says Priyadarshan, who premiered the movie at the Toronto Film Festival.
The film has been screened in various international film festivals like the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Durban Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival and Pusan Film Festival, to name a few.