On the heels of audience acclaim at its world premiere at Busan International Film Festival and European premiere at Tallinn Black Nights, Siddartha Jatla and Amanda Mooney’s self-produced, microbudget love story, Love and Shukla, has won the prestigious NETPAC Award at Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival.

The NETPAC Award is given to a film by an Asian director who shows important contributions to the new Asian cinema movement.

Love and Shukla is the story of s*x, love and the search for privacy in a one-room Mumbai chawl.

Congratulating the Love and Shukla cast and crew on the award, jury members celebrated Love and Shukla for, “Expressing innocence about a completely congested world bereft of intimacy and in search of authentic communication.”

The film stars Saharsh Kumar Shukla, whose recent films include Raees, Rangoon, Highway, Ugly and Talvar and newcomers Taneea Rajawat, Hima Singh, Aparna Upadhyay and Loknath Tiwari.

Jatla wrote, produced, directed, shot and edited Love and Shukla, along with Mooney who wrote, produced and edited the film with Jatla. This is his and Mooney’s first feature.

Love and Shukla will next travel to its US premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and to festivals across Europe and Asia.