The National Award winners for 2007

Ok, we got you inside info on Saturday. Here's a bigger list of winners as officially announced today. Will update it as more information trickles out.

• Best Film: Kanchivaram
• Best Film for Wholesome Entertainment: Chak De! India
• Best Film Grand Jury Award: Gandhi My Father
• Best Family Welfare Film: Taare Zameen Par
• Best Film (Hindi): 1971 
• Best Director: Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Nallu Pennungal 
• Best Screenplay: Feroz Abbas Khan, Gandhi My Father
• Best Actor: Prakash Raj, Kanchivaram 
• Best Actress: Uma Shree, Gulabi Talkies  
• Best Child Actor: Sharad Goyekar, Tingya)
• Best Supporting Actor: Darshan Zariwalla, Gandhi My Father
• Best Supporting Actress: Shefali Shah, The Last Lear
• Best Music: Ousepacham, Ore Kadal
• Best Lyrics: Prasoon Joshi, Maa, Taare Zameen Par
• Best Male Playback Singer: Shankar Mahedavan, Maa, Taare Zameen Par
• Best Female Playback Singer: Shreya Ghoshal, Yeh ishq hai, Jab We Met 
• Best Film on National Integration: Dharm

Meanwhile, read the interview I did with Priyadarshan when Kanchivaram was chosen for the Toronto International Film Festival exactly a year back...

How does it feel to have your film premiered at Toronto?

Damn good! Kanjivaram is obviously different from my usual films. It’s also selected for Pusan and has also been invited in Berlin now. So I am feeling good. This is the first time I tried a film like this and it’s been appreciated so much.

You haven’t done something so serious and thought provoking since Sazaa-e-Kalapaani?

Basically, even Sazaa-e-Kalapaani and Virasat were made as commercial films. This time I made sure that I wasn’t bothered how the film runs and all. This time I wanted to be much more true to the film. And I really made it as a very realistic film and never did I compromise anywhere for the masses.

You have been planning Kanjivaram for a long time...

Yes, nine years I kept the film with me. But nobody wanted to make it. They all thought that I should rather make them money. Only I wanted to make this film. Finally, thanks to Percept... because I made a few successful films for them, they agreed to fund this film for me.

How can the maker of loud comedies like Bhagam Bhag and Dhol and Malamaal Weekly make a subtle film like Kanjivaram?

Kanjivaram is an extremely subtle film. It is slow as well but it holds and it touches your heart. The thing is I like all kind of films. And I like to make all those kinds of films. I enjoy documentaries, I enjoy cartoons, I enjoy realistic movies. I watched all the films by Satyajit Ray, I watched all the films by Mrinal Sen, I watched Ritwik Ghatak and Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Now, there is a director inside me which I really wanted to satisfy. For that director I made this film. Otherwise Bollywood is paying me good money. There are two needs in a director like me. Sometimes you need fame and money. Sometimes you need recognition. I made Kanjivaram only for recognition.

The storyline sounds fascinating... Was it inspired from real life?

It is written by me. It’s pure irony, that is what I based it on. It’s about a weaver who weaves a lot of silk in his life but cannot weave a silk sari for himself. The film is set from the 1920s to 1940s when communism came to India through textile mill trade unions. Kanjivaram is not an anti-communist film but an analysis on why communism didn’t work at many places in the country.

Do you think communism couldn’t handle the Singur situation properly?

What is happening today is all personal attention and benefit. I feel that all the ideologists, not only communists, preach the ideology just for their benefits but they never practice it in their own lives. That’s why an ideology fails. In my film also, what is happening is that the weaver has two dreams. One is to get his daughter married in a silk sari. And the other is to instigate a revolt against the mill owners who rule over the workers like feudal lords. When he shuts down the factory, he knows he cannot anymore steal silk threads from the factory. So the marriage will stop and his promise of 16 years will not be fulfilled. It is then that he cheats the workers. He turns Brutus... he makes a speech to the workers like a Mark Anthony speech. What does the original speech say? It is not that Brutus didn’t love Caeser but he loved Rome more. Like that it’s not that the weaver did not support communism but he loved his daughter more.

Why did you not make the film in Hindi?

Because Kanchipuram is a Tamil-speaking place, no? If I do the film in Hindi, I wouldn’t be doing justice to the film. My first intention was to be as true to the subject as possible and not think of any commercial benefits. The film won’t even be dubbed in Hindi... maybe released with subtitles. This kind of film is for a certain kind of audience, not for everyone.

Why did you pick Prakash Raj for the main role?

I was looking for an actor who would actually spend time with me on the film. There are three periods in his life. So instead of people going grey by putting colour in their hair, I wanted him to lose hair. So I shot the film in order. We started by shaving off his head.

He co-operated very much. Also apart from Prakash Raj, all other actors I took from street plays.

Having done a Kanjivaram was it easy to go back to a Billo Barber in Bollywood?

That is what I really like. When I showed the film to people like Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, they asked me how did you switch over from this to that. So I said that there is this one switch with which I can switch from here to there. I am very sure why I am making a certain kind of film when I am making it. When the creator has the clarity why he is making a film, I don’t think there is any problem.

Will you make more films like Kanjivaram?

Definitely. This film has been very inspiring and I definitely intend to make more of them.