Shailaja Padindala’s Naanu Ladies wins Best Narrative Feature at the Kashish Film Fest 2022

Six years ago, Shailaja Padindala made her debut as a filmmaker with the critically-acclaimed, albeit controversial short film Memories of a Machine. Nearly six years later, she is busy with her second project, a feature film called Naanu Ladies, which has been doing the festival rounds.

Premiered at the Tasveer South Asian Film Festival in Seattle in October last year, where it was adjudged Best Queer Film, Naanu Ladies has now got another accolade. The film was part of the recent Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Fest 2022, where it won Best Narrative Feature. “#NaanuLadies won the best Narrative feature at the Kashish FilmFest 2022 #Mumbai. This win is totaly for all the crew members of NaanuLadies. THANK YOU ❤️#happypridemonth2022 ,” wrote Shailaja on social media.

Naanu Ladies is a script that Shailaja wrote way back in 2017. A dark comedy that she says is heavily inspired by her own life, and is her attempt at showcasing stories from the community in the right light so as to sensitize society about the importance of inclusivity and treating everyone as equal. Speaking to OTTplay earlier, the filmmaker, who also plays one of the protagonists in the film, had said, “Naanu Ladies is a love story between two women and how their relationship has to not only take on society, but also sustain through the socio-economic conditions of a middle-class life. I have used some of the most beautiful as well as embarrassing moments from my life in the narrative of Naanu Ladies. For instance, my androgynous appearance has been a life-long challenge for not being girlie or manly enough – my non-binary appearance confused people and their heteronormative cultural values. My mother and grandmother, though, were my biggest pillars of support, constantly telling me that I was beautiful in my own ways, which gave me a lot of strength to accept myself. The core strength of any human being comes from his/her family and if that is strong, nothing else can shake you. In that sense, Naanu Ladies redefines family and the values that we practice in our homes.”