National award caps off Gulmohar’s success, says Sharmila Tagore

A NATIONAL Film Award after the immense audience love for Gulmohar is like the proverbial icing on the cake, veteran actor Sharmila Tagore said on Friday (16).

The Rahul V Chittella-directed film, about a family getting ready to say goodbye to their ancestral home, has bagged the awards for best Hindi film and for best dialogue writing for Chittella. Manoj Bajpayee also received a special mention for the film in which he plays Tagore's eldest son.

The team behind Gulmohar, which released on Disney+Hotstar in 2023, must get together to celebrate the win, Tagore said.

"After Tiger (husband Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi) passed away, there was so much to do but there was no time. This film (Gulmohar) received a lot of love from the audience and got so many awards from so many platforms that it has been a wonderful journey. Now this National Award is the icing on the cake. I feel over the moon," Tagore told PTI.

The 79-year-old said working on the family drama in Delhi during Covid-19 brought everyone together and the cast members continue to be friends.

"Every member, even the crew members are calling me. There’s so much friendship amongst us that everybody is happy for each other. Like, Manoj is happy for me, I’m happy for Manoj... We did our best to make the film, and it became everybody’s film and everybody has appreciated it," she said.

The actor said Chittella was about to call her when she rang him up and congratulated him. She also reached out to Bajpayee and other cast members.

"We’ve told Rahul that he has to organise something so that all of us can meet and enjoy ourselves. That’s something that I’ll keep at it till we do it. We must (celebrate)," the veteran star said.

After Gulmohar, Tagore worked in the Bengali film Puratawn, which she said will release by the end of January.

Tagore, who has an enormous body of work behind her, said she wishes to work till the very end but the roles have to justify her presence.

"If things work out and if there's a good scrip, of course, I will work (more) But it has to suit me and these things cannot be planned. Sometimes a good script comes along and that's how Gulmohar and Puratawn happened. Let's hope something like that comes and certainly, I want to work till my dying day. But the script has to be good, especially after Gulmohar." (PTI)