Oh Calcutta!

Devesh Sharma Brings an Insider’s View of the Recently Concluded 2 Nd Jio Filmfare Awards East 2017

- Devesh Sharma

It was a star-studded affair as the who’s who of the Bengal film industry descended in droves at the Science City, Kolkata to attend the second edition of the Jio Filmfare Awards East 2017. Bengali cinema has always been high on story and content and this year too was no exception. Content-driven films like Cinemawala, Cholai, Shaheb Bibi Golaam and Praktan received the maximum honours.

Cinemawala, directed by Kaushik Ganguly, was a nostalgic Cinema Paradiso like nod to the world of single screen cinemas. It won five trophies, including the big two — Best Film and Best Director as well as Best Actor Critics’ (Male), Best Production Design and Best Story honours. Director Kaushik Ganguly’s happiness was complete when he received the Best Director award from wife Churni Ganguly, an acclaimed actor and filmmaker in her own right.

Praktan, directed by Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee also won five awards, including for Best Lyrics, Best Playback Singer (Female), Best Album, Best Actor (Female) and Best Supporting Actor (Female). It was a happy sight when after the show’s wrap-up, director duo Nandita and Shibo grinning from ear-toear, posed jubliantly with Praktan winners, Rituparna Sengupta (Best Actor Critics) and Aparajita Auddy (Best Actor In A Supporting Role) at the red carpet. In fact, so happy was Shibo at the team’s success that he accompanied almost every member of his squad as they went up on stage.