MUMBAO: It isn’t often that a film, specially an Indian film wins a humanitarian award at an international film festival. That’s exactly what Amole Gupte’s Stanley Ka Dabba has done. It has just won the special ActionAid award at the Giffoni Film Festival – the world’s largest children’s film festival where the jury this year comprised 3,300 kids and youngsters from 51 countries.
There were 145 films in the festival this year.
ActionAid is a world organization campaigning for a hunger-free world. It provides food to thousands of communities across the word.
In Stanley Ka Dabba, the theme of food for children was predominant and projected with bridled poignancy. Citing the reason for giving the award to Gupte’s film the ActionAid jury commented, “It’s not always easy to make people understand the connection between poverty and injustice so we found Stanley’s Tiffin Box (Stanley Ka Dabba) a fantastic tool to speak out about discrimination and the need to go ahead with the struggle against hunger. With this award we want to pay a tribute to Amole Gupte’s work, who linked the movie project with a special work with children, the real protagonists of the film and for the efforts spent to promote children’s rights and adolescents in India.”
Gupte feels it’s a triumph for cinema on children in India and for his work with and for children. Gupte, who was closely involved with another important Hindi film about children Taare Zameen Par, feels more of the A-listers in Bollywood need to support children’s films.
Gupte tells Businessofcinema.com, "When I see someone like Salman Khan pitching in for a children’s film like Chillar Party, my heart swells with pride. More power to the Aamirs and Salmans of showbiz. They can make a difference to how children’s film’s are perceived."
