Assamese film bags three awards at US festival

Assamese film “Xhoihobote Dhemalite" ("Rainbow Fields") on Saturday wins three top awards at the third edition of Love International Film Festival 2018 in Los Angeles, where over 150 films from across 36 countries participated.

Besides winning the best feature film, it also won the awards for best actress (Dipannita Sharma) and best background music score (Anurag Saikia) at the festival.

The film, directed by Bidyut Kotoky, portrays children of Assam growing up in violent times and witnessing brutality around them.

Receiving the award, Kotoky said, "In 'Xhoihobote Dhemlite', we always believe that we are making a world cinema in Assamese language. Our emotions respect no geographical barriers - we don't need a language to laugh or to cry. Thank you Love International Film Festival for re-affirming our faith."

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“Xhoihobote Dhemalite" is a semi-autobiographical in nature, inspired by true incidents from director Kotoky's life events. The film also features seasoned actors like Victor Banerjee, Nakul Vaid, Naved Aslam, Nipon Goswami and Nikumoni Barua.

Earlier in the day, Kotoky’s "Xhoixobote Dhemalite" film arguably became the first Assamese film to be commercially released in the US, with four shows screened at the Cine Grand Cinema Fremont in California. The film is also scheduled to release at Cine Grand in New Jersey on August 3.

"I'm extremely delighted to receive such a wonderful award. Really overwhelmed. I would like to thank jury members, director Bidyut Kotoky, sound designer Amrit Pritam Dutta, film mixing engineer Debajit Changmai, music mixing engineer Bhaskar Sarma and each and every member of the film 'Xhoihobote Dhemalite'," said Saikia.

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Actress Dipannita Sharma was also elated over her win.

"I'm just happy that I won my first best actress award for a film in my native language and on an international platform. It's celebration time for the whole team," Sharma said.

The film is produced by 'India Stories', a Mumbai-based production house and co-produced by Kotoky's Dhruv Creative Productions and US-based Kurmasana Kreates.

Kotoky says while he was struggling for funds for the film's completion, Dubai-based philanthropist Jani Viswanath came on board as an executive producer and also pledged her earning from the film back to Assam via her NGO Healing Lives.

(With inputs from agencies)