Students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) have bagged five national awards. The awards were declared yesterday. Arunima Sharma, who passed out last year, won the award for Best Direction with Swarna Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 1.5 lakh for her film Shyam Raat Seher.


Making a splash: A still from Kal 15 August Dukan Band Rahegi, a
film directed by Pratik Vats that won the Best Short Fiction award;


Arunima Sharma won Best Direction for Shyam Raat Seher

The film also bagged the Best Cinematography award for Murli G, cameraman, with Rajat Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and also Rajat Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 50,000 to its processing laboratory, Film Lab, Mumbai.

Another FTII student film, Kal 15 August Dukan Band Rahegi directed by Pratik Vats, won the Best Short Fiction award with Rajat Kamal and cash prize of Rs 50,000 each to the producer and director. Vats, a final year student of direction who had worked on the film as part of his second year projects, said, "It's an honour to receive the highest category award and I am very excited about it. I have worked hard for three months on the project.

"I don't think it will help me much in my career but it's an educational project at the end of the day. But yes, it's an honour that's not received by everybody." Murli G, who passed out last year from the cinematography batch, sounded ecstatic after winning the Best Cinematography award. He said it was team efforts that had helped the film receive numerous awards. "This the last project film on campus and it was great working for this particular project because we had a great team and every thing was well-planned," he said.

Currently working on a Telegu film Cheru Vaina Dura Maina directed by Hanumanth Pudi, Murli wants to flow with the tide and for the time being stick to regional cinema. "I have been working on this project for past three months and it's a great experience. There is lots of scope in regional cinema and I want to make the most of it."