South Asian film festival 2020 highlighted Indian cinema classics and UK premieres. Actors Deepa Mehta and Shabana Azmi were conferred with the ICON achievement award, while Freida Pinto, Vidya Balan and Adil Hussain won the auspicious outstanding achievement award.
Adil Hussain (Pic Credit - Variety)
South Asian film festival 2020: Adil Hussain, an outstanding actor, and Assam’s pride who has predominantly worked in Indian cinema, including art-house cinema, mainstream Bollywood and international cinema has won the outstanding achievement award at UK and Europe’s largest South Asian film festival. ‘The Life of Pi’ actor was bestowed with the award at 11th anniversary of the South Asian film festival, supported by the Bagri Foundation and the British Film Institute.
While accepting his award, Adil showed his gratitude in his speech where he said “Conception, pre-production, shooting, post-production, showcasing platforms, reviewers, critics and finally the audiences – in these stages, I play but one of the roles as an actor. I joyously accept this kind recognition by the outstanding team of the London Indian Film Festival who, very diligently and carefully curated independent films from Indian Subcontinent for the last 10 years. I also, humbly, share this award with my acting teachers and friends who always believed in me. Thank you.”
The actor has starred in unique films such as Life of Pi, which was based on survival by the company of a hyena and a male Bengal tiger in a lifeboat that is adrift in the middle of nowhere. Adil Hussain’s work doesn’t include only Hindi films but also Assamese, English, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Norwegian and French films.
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The South Asian film festival was held on the online platform as the world is facing global pandemic. It went online recognizing the winners of the Satyajit Ray Competition, the conversation went on covering topics from geo-blocked film content on the site to Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and BFI Sutherland prize winner Rat-Trap by the legendary Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
The festival started on June 25th with Bollywood star Ayushman Khurana in conversation and closed on July 5th in conversation with Hollywood star Freida Pinto. The festival catered to various LGBTQ+ films, women helmed films, films from Sri Lanka and Pakistan, as well as the buzzing Satyajit Ray Short Film competition, with a jury of high profile film pundits. The festival highlighted Indian cinema classics and UK premieres, and also acknowledged the much deserving films and actors that have left a mark behind with their remarkable skills.
