Actor Suriya’s legal drama Jai Bhim has bagged two awards at the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival (DPIFF), which was started with the aim to celebrate the legacy of producer, director and screenwriter Dadasaheb Phalke. Actor Manikandan, who played the role of Rasakannu in the legal drama, received the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ award at the film festival, while the film has also bagged the ‘Best Film’ award.
Helmed by filmmaker T Gnanavel, Jai Bhim premiered on streaming platform Amazon Prime Video ahead of Deepavali last year. The film had a positive reception among audiences and critics. It is bankrolled by Suriya’s home banner 2D Entertainment. Sharing the news about the film bagging two awards at the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival, 2D Entertainment tweeted, "#JaiBhim wins the Best Film & Best Supporting Actor awards at the #DadaSahebPhalkeFilmFestival. Thank you @dadasahebfest for the honour! Congratulations #Manikandan on winning the Best Supporting actor (sic)."
The ensemble cast included actors Rajisha Vijayan, Prakash Raj, Lijomol Jose and Manikandan, among others. Jai Bhim was shortlisted for the Best Picture Category in the 94th Academy Awards, but it failed to make it to the list of nominations. A video about the making of the film was released on the Oscars YouTube channel under its ‘Scene At the Academy’ section, which as per its website, focuses on the making of any film and the breakdown of important scenes from it.
#JaiBhim wins the Best Film & Best Supporting Actor awards at the #DadaSahebPhalkeFilmFestival
— 2D Entertainment (@2D_ENTPVTLTD) May 3, 2022
Thank you @dadasahebfest for the honour!
Congratulations #Manikandan on winning the Best Supporting actor
➡️https://t.co/8pwZaoeO17@Suriya_offl #Jyotika @tjgnan @rajsekarpandian
In the video, we see director Gnanavel saying, "The opening scene of the film shows the police segregating tribal people on the basis of caste. You could call it the film's theme. How easily a powerful system can brand the oppressed as habitual offenders on the basis of caste. When a privileged person is in trouble, their whole community shows up to fight. But for minorities like tribal people? They have no hope or scope.”
He further says in the video, “It is said that racism is the worst kind of discrimination worldwide. But casteism has several layers of discrimination built into it. If racism is like a spring which swirls up, those in the bottom can eventually fight their way to the top. But casteism is hierarchical. You can't move up or forward. One caste will stop you. If you make it past them, another will get you.”
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