Actress/entrepreneur Neetu Chandra was on cloud nine when the 63rd National Awards were announced recently. The film Mithila Makhaan, made under her production banner Champaran Talkies, won the Best Maithili Film in the regional category. It was directed by her brother Nitin Chandra, and is the first-ever film in the history of Bihar and Jharkhand to have bagged a National Award. Neetu, who has done many Tamil films including Ameer’s Aadhi Bhagawan with Jayam Ravi, and is presently busy with Vaigai Express, is ecstatic!
“It’s a proud moment for India. We made history! It’s a first in the history of Bihar,” she smiles, adding, “Bollywood films Traffic Signal and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye both got the National Award when I was the solo female lead. Now, I can’t thank God enough for making me the producer and my brother Nitin Chandra the director of Mithila Makhaan. After raising the bar with Deswa, a Bhojpuri film, which went to several international film festivals, our banner took on Mithila... we were yearning for something like this to happen in Bihar.”
Talking about Nitin, she says, “He studied film at the University of Pune, department of Communication Studies and had a stint at the Toronto Film School. He assisted Dibakar Banerjee, Tanuja Chandra and others before embarking on a documentary film called Bring Back Bihar, which was appreciated by everyone.”
The film deals with the Kosi river embankment breach of 2008 in Bihar, and the subsequent effort made by a youth to safeguard the cultural values of the Mithila region.
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