Nandita Das wins best actress award

Komal Nahta

Nandita Das recently won the best actress award at the Santa Monica Film Festival, USA, for her performance in Dr Jagmohan Mundhra's Bavandar (Sandstorm).

Dr Mundhra and Nandita were invited to the awards function held at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. The film had been shortlisted for the Moxie awards at the fete.

In Bavandar, Nandita Das plays Sanwari, a rural low caste woman who works for the Rajasthan government's development programme for women called Saathin. She is gangraped by upper-caste men in her village when she speaks up against the prevalent custom of child marriages.

While Bavandar is being screened at international film festivals, it is still to be cleared for release in India. The censors ordered five cuts which were not acceptable to Dr Mundhra, who has appealed to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT).

Strangely enough, the FCAT has not viewed the film several months after the appeal.

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