Was expecting National Award for Amitabh Bachchan: Shoojit Sircar

Mumbai, April 8 (IANS) "Pink" producer Shoojit Sircar is delighted that the movie has won the Best Film on Social Issues at the 64th National Film Awards, but he says he was expecting an honour for megastar Amitabh Bachchan for his outstanding performance in the film.

"Honestly, I was expecting a National Award for Mr. Bachchan for this film. After doing this film, my respect for him increased ten folds. He has not just acted in this film, but literally believed in this film. He was the voice of our film and because of him, the film got wider appreciation," Sircar said after the 64th National Film Award winners were announced on Friday.

"Pink" dealt with stereotypes associated with women and handled the subject in a very subtle way instead of making a noise about it. It gave a very strong meaning and an impact to a very simple line like "No means No". The movie, directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, also featured Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Angad Bedi, Andrea Tariang and Piyush Mishra.

Sircar said: "'Pink' has been a revolution. We are feeling very proud as National Award is the biggest award given by government of India. The entire circle of this film ends on a very positive note and we are feeling really special as a team.

"We tried to present women's problems which they face in their day-to-day life and it was well accepted from all quarters of the society. It was an issue which was dealt honestly without making any kind of adjustment with it and we got the results for it."

Talking about future projects, he said: "In future, we will continue making films on unusual stories and will not make any compromise on that front. Right now, I am working on a few scripts with my team of writers and will make official announcement soon about our next film."