After winning the prestigious NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at the Venice International Film Festival for her Hindi-Sylheti-Bengali-Marathi feature film Lovers in the Blue Night, Purulia (West Bengal)-based writer-director Anuparna Roy says the win is dedicated to her “village, its people and their stories,” that came her way.
Speaking to us, Roy shares, “It’s big to have competition from 26 countries and being selected by the jury for the award is huge for me and my crew. And the jury members while giving us the award said ‘To pick one film was extremely difficult because we had a large number of good films’ that statement made my day and left me overwhelmed with what else you work for, such recognition, only. Bahut achhi kahaniyon se we were competing with, no denying I was sceptical about the win.”
Recalling the initial days of making the film, she says, “It feels like yesterday that we completed the film and submitted it to the fest with our fingers crossed. The real challenge was when, earlier in mid-June this year, we shared our work-in-progress cut and it got picked up. So we had to complete the film in no time to be submitted by the first half of August 2026 for the final selection and exclusive premiere of our 109-minute film. And we knew we couldn’t go wrong.”
Roy reveals to have been living with the story of the protagonist since she was just eight years old. “My film’s central character Amina is based on a migrant woman working as a bonded maid who lived in my village. I was intrigued how she was married yet lived all by herself till the age of 80 waiting to be seen and liked by her husband. I was very close to her. This story made me a writer at the age of 15,” she says.
{{/usCountry}}Roy reveals to have been living with the story of the protagonist since she was just eight years old. “My film’s central character Amina is based on a migrant woman working as a bonded maid who lived in my village. I was intrigued how she was married yet lived all by herself till the age of 80 waiting to be seen and liked by her husband. I was very close to her. This story made me a writer at the age of 15,” she says.
{{/usCountry}}On what lies ahead, the filmmaker who also won the Orizzonti Best Director award for her debut short film Songs of Forgotten Trees at Venice last year, says, “I have two more scripts ready and will get back working on them once I am able to bring this film to my audiences in the country.”
Acknowledging efforts of her crew members, including sound designer Arka Dey and cinematographer Debjit Samanta, Roy concludes, “Without a good team, wins on the global stage is not possible."