Kavya Prakash on the special jury mention for ‘Vaanku’: I even told mom not to expect anything big from my debut film - Exclusive

July 22nd morning began as usual for Kavya Prakash as the thought of bagging the national award for her debut film ‘Vaanku’ was miles away from the young director’s mind and when her mom reminded her about the same, she replied, “Please mom don’t make me worried. There is no chance that my debut film will be getting such an award.” Alas! Kavya’s words only survived till 4 pm that day, when the prestigious 68th National Film Awards were announced and she got a special mention for her debut film ‘Vaanku’.

“I was really overwhelmed. I even told mom not to expect anything big for my debut film. I really thank the jury for considering my work.”, an overjoyed Kavya Prakash opened up exclusively to ETimes.

Kavya Prakash is the daughter of the renowned Mollywood director VK Prakash and when asked about her father’s reaction to her daughter’s big win Kavya said, “Dad and mom were both excited on hearing the news. Actually, my dad watched the movie ‘Vaanku’ on the first day at the theatre itself and also encouraged me for my efforts. He also pointed out certain things from the movie and asked me to add such elements from the next movie onwards.”

‘Vaanku’ is based on the story written by the renowned Mollywood writer Unni R and on choosing such a story for her debut direction venture, Kavya said, “When Unni R sir told me the storyline of ‘Vaanku’ I was immediately hooked by the uniqueness of it as it gave voice to an unheard segment of the society. The central character has a desire and a strong determination to achieve it, which actually fascinated me and when Unni R sir asked me whether I wanted to take up the story for my debut directorial venture, I was out of words to reply to him.”

‘Vaanku’ tells the story of Razia, a young Muslim girl who wishes to sing aloud Adhan and faces difficult social challenges while achieving her goal. Speaking more about the concept, Kavya said, “We didn’t visualize the story on the basis of gender. It's the universal element in the storyline that clicked for the three of us (Kavya, Unni R, and Shabna Mohammed). The complete script took one year to get molded as we had to shape it accordingly so that it doesn’t hurt any of the communities. I also stayed in Ponnani, Malappuram to learn about the community and tradition of the people there.”

Kavya further said that after watching the movie the writer Unni R was really satisfied and told her that she has completely given justice to the storyline. “Sir said that even if this film won't bag any awards he will be happy as the film has captured the full essence of his story.”

Kavya Prakash is all in awe of her father’s knack for handling every genre flawlessly and would love to try that approach in the future. She said, “I love to do different genres and also tell those unheard stories to the audience. Moreover, what I take into priority is a good subject.” She also said that the director Mridul Nair and Prakash Varma helped her in molding the filmmaker in her.

Meanwhile, Kavya Prakash has two or more scripts in the pipeline and is waiting for which one to get materialized first. “One among the script is a thriller and another one a feel-good one.”, Kavya Prakash concluded.