Neeraj Ghaywan's directorial venture "Masaan" bagged two top awards at the recent Cannes Film Festival held in France.
"Masaan", which has Richa Chadda, Sanjay Mishra, Vicky Kaushal and Shweta Tripathi in lead roles, won the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI) award and the Most Promising Newcomer award in the Un Certain Regard section.
The drama film, which was shown in the UnCertain Regard section, received a five-minute standing ovation after it was screened.
The director shared the news via his Twitter handle; Richa also expressed her happiness on the film winning two awards.
#MASAAN just won the FIPRESCI award for UN CERTAIN REGARD at @Festival_Cannes!!!!! This was long due for India!!!
— Neeraj Ghaywan (@ghaywan) May 23, 2015
2nd award for India!! #MASAAN MOST PROMISING NEW COMER! See @anuragkashyap72 what your mentorship has got me to! pic.twitter.com/ToQ7IQjzrw — Neeraj Ghaywan (@ghaywan) May 23, 2015
This is the best day! Keeps getting better. MY GOD.#MasaanAtCannes is coming home with 2 awards. Thrilled. Thank you everyone for the wishes
— RichaChadha (@RichaChadha_) May 23, 2015
#Masaan wins the FIPRESCI award in the Un Certain Regard category at #Cannes2015. Congratulations to the entire team! pic.twitter.com/UwTqnNXEId — Filmfare (@filmfare) May 23, 2015
Latest reports suggest that while the director and Manish Mundra celebrated the success at a restaurant in Cannes, Richa and others, who had left Cannes, celebrated at Eiffel Tower and had dinner at a French restaurant.
Many B-town celebs, including Arjun Kapoor and Masaba Gupta, have congratulated the "Masaan" team for its success.
Arjun Kapoor
So Masaan makes India proud overseas...hope n pray it gets the platform in India to be showcased to our audience the way it deserves...
Masaba Gupta
From a 5min standing ovation to the FIPRESCI award for Masaan at Cannes! Congrats Neeraj & congrats @FuhSePhantom ' WOOOOOOT
"Masaan" tells two parallel stories, one about a boy from a lower caste working at a crematorium (also called Masaan) in Varanasi who falls in love with an upper caste girl, and the other about the sex scandal of an upper caste girl (Richa) and her father (Sanjay Mishra).
Written by Neeraj and Varun Grover, "Masaan" has been produced by Anurag Kashyap's Phantom Films.
