The annual Gollapudi Srinivas National Award for ‘Best Debut Director 2013’ was presented to filmmaker Gyan Correa for his Oscar-nominated Gujarati film, ‘The Good Road’, in front of a packed audience at Music Academy on Tuesday evening.
Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan presented Mr. Correa with the award and a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh.
It was a star-studded event as young men and women, undeterred by the drizzle, patiently queued up to wave at famous Indians gracing the award function. The list included Mr. Bachchan, Mahesh Manjrekar, Madhavan and Suhasini Maniratnam, writer Chetan Bhagat, singers Karthik and Bombay Jayashri, and cinematographer and filmmaker Rajiv Menon.
The evening began on a promising note, with a musical play, ‘Scent of Vinyl’, a story of a family of musicians over different eras, directed by Mr. Menon. The play was interspersed with some spectacular performances by Mr. Karthik and Ms. Jayashri, which included both devotional and popular film songs in Hindi and Tamil, from various eras.
After the play, Mr. Bhagat delivered a lecture on ‘Entertainment for a Change’. He said, “Through ‘Kick’, I reached an audience I could never have done otherwise. I am not going to let you believe that India is a land of hopelessness. Entertainment is a great way to spread this message.”
Mr. Bachchan, who spoke last, said, “What an amazing son Srinivas must have been to inspire his family to set up an award in his name.” After receiving the award, Mr. Correa said, “I learnt that the foundation sees their son in every year’s winner. This is an important recognition.”
