Two National Award winners from Bengal talk about their win

Director duo Rajdeep Paul and Sarmistha Maiti’s debut film Kalkokkho: House of Time bagged the best Bengali Film Award at the 69th National Film Awards ceremony held on Thursday.
Meanwhile, debutant director Ishaan Ghose’s Bengali film Jhilli (Discards), won best Sound Designing (for Aneesh Basu). Added to that, actors Aranya Gupta and Bithan Biswas from Jhilli also garnered special mention for their outstanding performance in the film.
“The award was totally unexpected. I didn’t even know that the National Awards would be announced on Thursday. I came to know when friends from the media started calling me. Two National Awards for my debut film definitely makes me feel happy. You love it when your hard work gets acknowledged. I am especially happy that the two actors in my film got recognition at last. Their appreciation means a lot to me. My parents too are extremely happy about this win. At present I am busy with my next film which revolves around four late teenagers coming from different strata of life and their journey,” said Ishaan.

Rajdeep too is enjoying the success of the win along with his co-director Sarmistha. “It is an overwhelming experience. We were hopeful that the film might win something but not in this category! The tag Best Bengali tag makes us feel over the moon. Previously we had won a National Award for our debut documentary titled At The Crossroad. But this award means a lot to us and will encourage us to do better,” said Rajdeep.