Siddharth Chauhan's Debut Feature AMAR COLONY Wins FFSI K.R. Mohanan Award

Award-winning filmmaker Siddharth Chauhan's debut feature film set in his home town Shimla, Amar Colony has won the 'FFSI K.R. Mohanan Award' for 'Best Debut Director from India' at the distinguished 27th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), recently held in Thiruvananthapuram.

The film had its India premiere at IFFK as part of the 'Indian Cinema Now' section in which 7 Films were selected.

This is the second award bagged by Amar Colony which won a Special Jury Award at 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival where it had its World Premiere in the 'First Features Competition' section in November.

The first project from a local filmmaker of Himachal Pradesh to make it to NFDC Film Bazaar's Co-Production Market in 2018, Amar Colony features CORRECTION: features Nimisha Nair, Ayush Shrivastava, Sangeeta Agrawal, Deepak Sharma, Usha Chauhan, Sreejith Vijay, Yash Thakur and Rohit Agrawal in the lead roles.

Produced by 'Indie Film Collective', a film initiative launched by Nisheeth Kumar and his friends in India in 2018. The film is produced in association with 'Goopy Bagha Productions'.

Excited about second win in a row, writer-director Siddharth Chauhan says, "I am certainly one of the most fortunate independent filmmakers of my country because though there are many who dream of making films, there are so many who try so hard, may be even harder than me to make films, only a few succeed. I also feel I am very fortunate because the most amazing team of people could come together leaving many important tasks and higher paying jobs to make this film with me. Though we just won an award in Tallinn to be awarded in our own country by such a prestigious festival at our Indian Premiere means a lot to me. My award became all the more special also because I got to share the stage, even if for a moment - with one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of the world, Mr Bela Tarr."

Thrilled, producer Nisheeth Kumar says, "Amar Colony crafts a unique cinematic language to tell a story with multiple layers."

Synopsis:

In a dilapidated building called Amar Colony, wheelchair bound Devki lives with her son Mohit. Meera - a beautiful, pregnant young woman lives a lonely life as their next door neighbor. Fed up of her boring life and absent husband, she befriends Mohit, an idle young boy. When Mohit's mother begins to suspect that they are not just friends, she starts objecting to her advances but despite all her attempts she is unable to stop Meera from meeting her son.

Director's Profile:

Born and brought up in Shimla, Siddharth Chauhan is a self-taught and award winning filmmaker who has made several short films. Driven by the need to create value, he makes most of his films in his hometown - Shimla and believes that world class content can be created anywhere. Amar Colony is his debut feature film. He is currently working on his second feature.

Producer's Profile:

Nisheeth Kumar, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indie Film Collective (IFC), is the lead producer of Amar Colony. IFC is a film initiative, which aims to create and celebrate cinema by identifying and promoting emerging talent in cinema in the Indian and South Asian region, to begin with, but eventually globally. IFC's first co-production is National Award winning Director Gurvinder Singh's film titled, Khanaur (The Bitter Chestnut). The film had its World Premiere at Busan International Film Festival in 2019; nominated for the Kim Jiseok Award, Indian Premiere at MAMI, 2019 and its European premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival, 2020.

Co-Producers Profile:

Arifur Rahman and Bijon Imtiaz are an award-winning filmmaking duo from Bangladesh who formed Goopy Bagha Productions Limited. Their recently produced Afghan short film ROQAIA was part of the Venice International Film Festival's competition section. Currently, they are developing several narrative feature films including PARADISE with Bijon as a writer-director and Arifur as producer which was an official selection at Berlinale International Film Festival's co-production market.

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