Social thriller 'Pinki Elli' extends dream run as BIFFes comes to an end

The film was adjudged the best in the Kannada Cinema competition for the year 2020

Prithvi Konanur’s ‘Pinki Elli’, which recently clinched two prizes at the New York Indian Film Festival, expectedly bagged the top honour at the 13th edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival.

The 107-minute long social thriller, involving children, was adjudged the best in the Kannada Cinema competition for the year 2020 during the closing ceremony of the event at the J N TATA Auditorium here on Thursday.

“I am open to both theatrical and direct-to-OTT release options. We need to consider the uncertain nature of the pandemic before taking a call,” Prithvi told DH. He added that the movie will be remade in other languages.

Premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in October 2020, ‘Pinki Elli’ is Prithvi’s third feature and is inspired from an incident in Bengaluru, when a mother found her child missing.

For the year 2021, K N Raghu’s ‘Doddahatti Boregowda’ emerged winner in the Kannada Cinema competition. “This is my film’s maiden festival appearance. The film is about a poor man’s struggles to build a house through a government scheme. I am thrilled at the response it got at BIFFes,” Raghu told DH.

The prizes were given away by Karnataka governor Thaawarchand Gehlot. Malayalam drama ‘Meppadiyan’ won the best cinema award in the Indian Cinema Competition (2021) and Aditya’s Kripalani’s ‘Not Today’ was first at Asian Cinema section (2021).

The festival, which was held for eight days across three venues in the city, witnessed 332 screenings. Around 250 films were screened. The next edition of the festival is scheduled to begin from March 3. The event wasn’t held for two years due to the pandemic.

'GGVV' draws a blank

In what came as a surprise, Raj B Shetty’s highly acclaimed ‘Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana’ (GGVV) didn’t win a prize in the Kannada Popular Entertainment category (2021). ‘GGVV’, a gangster drama set in Mangaluru, received pan-India praise for its technical superiority. Famed Bollywood directors Anurag Kashyap and Ram Gopal Varma had given rave reviews for the film.

The top three prizes in the category went to ‘Yuvarathnaa’, ‘Roberrt’ and ‘Kotigobba 3’ respectively. ‘Pogaru’ got a special mention from the jury.

List of winners: 2021: Kannada Cinema competition: Doddahatti Boregowda (Directed by Raghu KM), 1; Dandi (Vishal Raj), 2; Devada Kaad (Amar L), 3. Special Jury Mention: Kishor Moodbidri

Popular Kannada Entertainment section: Yuvarathnaa (Santosh Ananddram) 1; Roberrt (Tharun Sudhir), 2; Kottigobba 3 (Shiva Karthik), 3. Special Jury Mention: Pogaru.

Indian Cinema competition: Meppadiyan (Vishnu Mohan) 1; Gandhi & Co (Manish Saini) 2; Adieu Godard (Amartya Bhattacharyya) 3.

Asian Cinema competition: Not Today (Aditya Kripalani) 1; Abscence (Aki Mostaffa) 2; Special Jury Mention: Two Dogs (Amir Azizi).

2020: Kannada Cinema competition: Pinki Elli (Directed by Prithvi Konanur), 1; O Nanna Chethana (Apurva), 2; Masanada Hoovu (Amar Gowda) 3.

Kannada Popular Entertainment section: Dia (KS Ashoka), 1; Shivaji Surathkal (Akash Srivatsa) 2; Love Mocktail (Darling Krishna) 3.

Indian Cinema competition: Semkhor (Aimee Baruah) 1; Thahira (Siddik Paravoor) 2; Bridge (Kripal Kalita) 3.

Asian Cinema competition: The Newspaper (Sarath Kothalawala, Kumara Thirimadura) 1; God On The Balcony (Biswajeet Bora) 2. Special Jury Mention: The Wanderlust of Apu (Subhrajit Mitra)

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