India Post News Service
FREMONT, CA: On the auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti last Sunday January 14, Dr. Ranu Sinha, the writer-director of “Doctor By Heart” and some of the cast and crew members gathered at the Fremont Hindu Temple for a felicitation by Dr. Romesh Japra, on whose life the film is based.
The movie premiered at FOG Movie Fest in August last year and recently won the Best Concept Award at the Delhi International Film Festival (DIFF) in December, which the director attended.
Dr. Romesh Japra said that the film had made a big splash at the festival, which is FOG’s partner, and congratulated the director, saying that she “has done a wonderful job of putting this concept in the form of a movie”.
Dr. Ranu Sinha replied that it was a great honor that Dr. Japra had bestowed that upon her and that his story itself was very powerful.
She added that out of the 145 films that were screened at DIFF, only 25 won awards and that “Doctor By Heart” was one of them. “We were loved”, she said.
The film also had the maximum number of viewers, so they ended up having some internal voting by the people who watched the film in Delhi.
Her company, GlamR productions, decided to give it out to the two women who came out very close in the voting by the viewers.
The director praised the ladies, “Everybody loved them very much; they played two diverse cultures… they were marvelous… they were beautiful in their own spirit…”
She then named the first winner – the female lead actor of the film, Michelle Elrick. Felicitating her with the GlamR trophy for the Best Viewer’s Choice/Global Icon Award, Ranu said, “Michelle was voted unanimously by most of the younger people. And she was loved. She is very poised, natural.”
Ustad Lal Singh Bhatti, who played the role of a village singer in the film, had brought his drum along and added his beats to every award announcement.
Receiving her trophy, Michelle said, “It was an absolute honor to be a part of this project; to work with such talented and amazing people,so thank you very much so I appreciate it.”
About the second awardee, Ranu said, “There was a tie between two beautiful, leading characters of the movie. Families just loved this beautiful woman. They thought that her role was very powerful.”She announced the recipient for the Family Choice Award –
Kanchan Daftardar Fernandes.
Kanchan was overwhelmed as she thanked Dr. Ranu Sinha and Dr. Japra for giving her the opportunity. She said that it was “a dream come true” for her and gushed, “This is just amazing…I feel on top of the world right now.”
Dr. Sinha thanked Dr. Japra for giving the opportunity to work with him. She then called upon Tripthi Pai, the leading actress of her last venture, “Arranged to Love”, a short film that was screened at FOG Movie Fest in 2016.
She felicitated Tripthi with the trophy for Best Actress from GlamR Productions.
Tripthi was delighted to finally receive her trophy from Dr. Japra. She said, “I am waiting for, like the last one year!” Ms. Pai concluded saying that it had been an amazing journey and thanked all the viewers who had voted her for the Popular Choice Award and everybody present.
Ranu then thanked everyone present individually and asked each to come to the front to hold the trophy along with Dr. Japra, making special mention of each: They were Director of Photography, Jan Philip Safarik, Manorama Joshi – the actress who played the young Dr. Japra’s aunt and was also a key person on the set – FOG Media Chair Ritu Maheshwari, Lakshmi Iyer, Bhattiji (Ustad Lal Singh Bhatti),Bharat Aggarwal, Kera, a young girl who acted as one of Doctor’s cousins in the village scene, Shilpa Rivera and Vasudha Badri Paul, Sangeetha Kumbla, who had been a driving force right from “Arranged to Love” and Keith Lucitt”.
Ranu Sinha closed out the speech, thanking the media including Sanjeevji (Sanjeev Bhardwaj of AB 24 who was covering the event with Poonam Sharma), her family and all her Facebook friends. She announced her next project was based on women’s emancipation and as a parting note, crooned Chalechaltehain…khwaabonkebandhon…” from the film as everyone joined in.
Afterwards, the entire team partook of the delicious Preeti Bhoj lunch at the temple.
Lakshmi Iyer
