Director Raam Reddy, whose Kannada film "Thithi" won the National Film Award, says that it is nothing short of a miracle that a subtitled Kannada language film is getting immense admiration from industry leaders.
After filmmaker Kiran Rao, Anurag Kashyap too held a screening of the film on Monday which was attended by celebrities like Kangana Ranaut, Shekhar Kapoor, Sudhir Mishra, Vicky Kaushal, Kartik Aaryan, Gulshan Devaiah, Swara Bhaskar among others.
"Firstly, I am completely and utterly indebted to Anurag Kashyap for his amazing support and championing of the film ever since I met him in Locarno last year. Without him, the film would not be where it is today. It really is nothing short of a miracle for the kind of appreciation a subtitled Kannada language film is getting from industry leaders," Reddy said in a statement.
He said it was an "amazing honour" to have names like Kangana and Kapur at the film's screening.
"It was such an amazing honour to have guests like Shekhar Kapur and Kangana Ranaut at the screening and to meet them and hear their words of encouragement. Yesterday (Monday) Aamir Khan tweeted warmly with overwhelming praise for the film and today (Tuesday) Irrfan Khan has tweeted with similar appreciation. I cannot describe how deeply grateful I am in every possible way," the 25-year-old director added.
After a successful run in Karnataka, Reddy's internationally acclaimed directorial debut will hit theatres across India on Friday with English subtitles.
The film made its Asia premiere at Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) last year and won the Jury Grand Prize in the international competition.
"Thithi" recently won the 2016 National Award for Best Feature film in Kannada and also won three awards at the Karnataka State Film Awards 2016 -- Best Film, Best Dialogues and Best Supporting Actress.
--IANS
ks/ank/dg
