Three Indian films will be competing for the prestigious Remi awards at the 43rd Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film and Video Festival starting from April 9.
'Bodhisattva', 'Ek Tho Chance' and 'Saluun' have been nominated for the top honours in the Feature Film category.
Produced by Pritish Nandy Communication (PNC)
productions and directed by Saeed Mirza, 'Ek Tho Chance'starring Purab Kohli, Amrita Arora, Rajat Kapoor is about life in Mumbai, the city of dreams.
"Earlier in 2004, PNC movie 'Jhankaar Beats' won the Remi award. Later in 2007, another movie selected at the WorldFest Houston was 'Pyaar Ke Side Effects', a romantic comedy starring Mallika Sherawat and Rahul Bose won the Silver Remi Award for Best Comedy Feature," Ishita Nandy, Vice
President of PNC told PTI.
Nikhil Bhat's 'Saluun', is a story of Ashok, a
small-town simpleton who gets entangled in a thick web of corrupt government machinery after his road side salon is razed by local municipality.
San Banarje directed 'Bodhisattva' is about about a daughter Maya (Trisha Ray) who has not been able to forgive her businessman father, Bodhisattva (Soumitra Chatterjee) for her mother's suicide.
"Maya suffers from Electra complex and compares every man with her father and is even willing to commit a crime at his bidding," said San, whose English film 'Money' was screened at the 2007 Cannes film festival.
"Getting this far was beyond our imagination as we even missed the deadline. However, the WorldFest organizers generously allowed us to submit the roughest version of it even after the deadline," said Trisha.
"The jury liked the rough cut so much that they put us on a Saturday night slot. This nomination is a big approval for us because the film is so small. The fact that we are nominated alongside movies like the Jones' starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny proves that God has stamped our hard work,"she added.
For Trisha sharing reel time with veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee has been a dream come true.
"I play Soumitrada's daughter and what more can I ask for. I play a girl, obsessed with her dad. At one point, her father rules her mind and forces her to commit various crimes," said Trisha, who draws inspiration from her actress
grandmother Karuna Banerjee, renowned for her lead roles in Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy (1955-1959) .
"I watched Pather Panchali and Devi again to
study her acting nuances. Before every shot I imagined how she would have done it," Trisha added.
Billed as the oldest independent film and video festival in the world, the annual WorldFest dates back to 1961 and has been entertaining film fans, students and industry experts for decades.