Malayalam movie ‘Biriyaani’ directed by Sajin Baabu won two international awards - the Best feature film and the Best actress in the 6th Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival, Boston.
The Caleidoscope annual film festival is the largest film festival in the North East area of the United States after the New York festival and is organised by Indian Arts Boston. The festival is officially recognized by IMDB.
The awards were declared by a jury comprising of Bill Campbell (writer, director), Vince Boinger (Professor of Film studies, Rhode Island college ), Howard Phillips (Film instructor), Swati Srivastava (Writer-Director), and Sujoy De (Actor).
Biriyaani was the only Malayalam movie in the competition section, along with movies from Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarathi and Tamil languages.
Earlier, in an interview with PTI, Sajin Baabu said that he is now in discussions for its over-the-top platform release. He was earlier trying for a theatrical screening and a friend had promised money for it but then COVID happened and "now it looks difficult given the present situation."
"We are planning for an OTT release currently and in discussions and that might happen, I think," Babu told PTI.
Kani Kusruti, who played the lead role of Khadeeja in the movie, had bagged the best actress award at the fifth BRICS film festival which was held along with the 42nd Moscow International Film festival, besides the Kerala state film award last month.
She had also won the award for second best actress at the Imagine India Film Festival at Madrid earlier this year. The movie also secured the Padmarajan award for best screenplay at the Bangalore International Film Festival in February.
'Biriyaani' explores the journey of a married Muslim woman (Khadeeja) towards emancipation.
Sajin Baabu had earlier directed 'Unto the Dusk' (Asthamayam Vare) and 'Ayaal Sassi'.
