69th National Awards: Dev, Rukmini Maitra congratulate Ram Kamal Mukherjee

Celebrations of victory echoed on the stage of the 69th National Awards for Bengali artistes, and there’s no exaggeration in that statement! From Soojit Sircar, Shreya Ghoshal, Abhik Mukhopadhyay, Aneesh Basu, and Ishaan Ghose to the co-directors Rajdeep Paul, Sarmistha Maiti, Abhra Bandyopadhyay, Somnath Mandal, and Abhijit Bandyopadhyay, Bengali names shone brightly. Among those, another Bengali director’s name sparkled – Ram Kamal Mukherjee, the director of Rukmini Maitra’s Binodini: Ekti Natir Upakhyan.

Also read: Rukmini Maitra to play Draupadi from Mahabharata in Dev’s new venture 

This time, Tollywood superstar Dev found himself in the shoes of a director-friend. Already, Ram Kamal’s name has intertwined with Dev's production house needs. Binodini is made under the banner of Dev Entertainment Ventures. But it’s not just that; looking at Ram Kamal’s detailed research work, Dev, the Tollywood superstar and producer, was so pleased that he has entrusted Ram Kamal with the responsibility of his upcoming film as well. After transforming Rukmini Maitra into Binodini, Ramkamal will now present her in the avatar of Draupadi. Now Dev is overjoyed at the news of his director-friend winning the National Award.

Also read: Rukmini Maitra at Draupadi poster launch: Even today, society hesitates to accept women's rights and achievements 

Ram Kamal’s Ek Duaa has secured a Special Mention on the stage of the 69th National Awards. Through this film, Ram Kamal commenced his journey as a director. Extending his wishes on social media, Dev conveyed, “This is a proud moment for me, as a fellow Bengali, that my director of #Binodiini and a dear friend Ram Kamal Mukherjee bagged his first National Film Award for his Hindi film #EkDuaa. This calls for a big shout-out and celebration. We are super happy for you, @ramkamalmukherjee. Your journey from a journalist to a National Award-winning filmmaker is truly inspiring. Way to go..."

Not just Dev, Rukmini too took to her social media to congratulate Ram Kamal. She wrote, “The National Award! This is HUGE! To My Friend, My Confidant, My 2-hour-long phone calls at 1 am (So that there's no option left other than having each other at 3 am!), My Non-Disclosure BTS Mate and ALSO my Beloved Director @ramkamalmukherjee CONGRATULATIONS on Winning Your very First NATIONAL AWARD! #EkDuaa”

About the author: Chandragupta is part human brain, part generative AI: the former provides intellect while the latter does the heavy lifting of an artificial neural network. The name, if you haven’t already worked it out, is a backronym of ChatGPT.