Soorarai Pottru director Sudha Kongara reacts to film's National Film Award win: 'Feels like I have done something good'

Sudha Kongara, director of Tamil film Soorarai Pottru, has reacted to the film winning five awards at the 68th National Film Awards announced on Friday, calling the film a ‘collaborative effort’.

Tamil film Soorarai Pottru emerged as the biggest winner at the 68th National Film Awards announced on Friday evening. The Suriya-starrer won three of the four major awards, including best feature film and also won a handful of other awards. The film’s director and screenwriter Sudha Kongara has called this triumph a ‘validation’ of her work.

Sudha Kongara and Suriya on the sets of Soorarai Pottru.

Apart from the best feature film win, the film also saw Suriya winning best actor (jointly with Ajay Devgn), and Aparna Balamurali winning best actress. The film also won the awards for best background score and best original screenplay.

Reacting to the film’s grand success at the National Film Awards, director Sudha Kongara told India Today, “I feel fantastic that a mainstream film is getting a National Award. It feels damn good and feels like I have done something good. It is like a validation. I feel really good.”

The filmmaker added that the film’s success was not all her own and she owed it to the ‘collaborative effort’ of her team. “I feel gratified, validated. I feel I was fortunate to get this pool of talent. It was a collaborative effort, filmmaking is the most collaborative process in the world. Each one is best in the work and best in what they do and getting award for what they did. In the end it is peace,” she added.

Soorarai Pottru, starring Suriya, Aparna Balamurali and Paresh Rawal, is inspired from the life of Simplifly Deccan founder GR Gopinath and his efforts to launch India’s first low-cost passenger airline. After delays due to Covid-19, it was released on Amazon Prime Video on 12 November 2020. A Hindi remake starring Akshay Kumar is currently in the works.