Manoj Bajpayee won the Best Actor trophy at Asia Pacific Screen Awards this year. Another Indian, Ridham Janve, won the Young Cinema Award for his directorial debut film The Gold-Laden Sheep and the Sacred Mountain.
The acclaimed actor won against international actors like Wang Jingchun (China), Navid Mohammadzadeh and Mohsen Tanabandeh (Iran), and Eran Naim (Israel).
In Bhonsle, Manoj plays a retired Maharashtrian police officer in Mumbai who comes to the aid of a brother-sister duo from North India after they face hostility from bigoted politicians. Bajpayee’s act as a soft-spoken and terminally-ill man who forges an unlikely companionship with the two wowed the jury.
Asia Pacific Screen Awards@APScreenAwardsThe gracious @BajpayeeManoj wins Best Performance by an Actor for BHONSLE: “This film is a very very special film to me and winning this film is a poetic justice for everyone who made this film. Thank you APSA.” #APSA2019
In his acceptance speech at the ceremony held in Brisbane, Manoj Bajpayee said that he woke up excited but soon began to feel the anxiety and nervousness about the event. I was hoping and praying that this time I should win it not for anybody but for my little daughter because she is hoping her dad will win some award this evening, he said to applause. The actor went on to highlight the fraught journey the film has had to find financers.
Manoj Bajpayee, also one of the film’s producers, called Bhonsle a very, very special film, adding that the victory was poetic justice for all the team members of the film.
The Aligarh wasn’t the only Indian to return with a trophy. Ridham Janve won the Young Cinema Award for his directorial debut film The Gold-Laden Sheep and the Sacred Mountain.
Asia Pacific Screen Awards@APScreenAwardsAnd the #APSA2019 goes to…
Prasanta Patnaik