Photo:Toi
The lead protagonist of Shoib Nikash Shah’s film 'Oxygen' won the most prestigious award of Caleidoscope 2019. Namita Lal won the Best Actress Award at the Indian Film Festival in Boston this year.
Oscars 2019: Full list of winners
Actress Namita Lal was very pleased and honoured to receive this huge title. She was in Singapore when she received the news. Expressing her excitement, she says, “I had absolutely no idea that I could win this Award since we sent the film to Boston at the last minute.” While talking about the film, she says, “The film was shot in a rare location, which was the forest area of J&K near the Line of Control (LoC) and being the only woman in the unit and also, a non-local of the place, nevertheless it was challenging to put up in that area as the film had a lot of local people and children, who were familiar to the region, but I am very thankful to the director and the team, who made me comfortable to the environment. It was an amazing experience to shoot with the locals.”
Throwing light on her role in the film, actress Namita Lal says, “I feel honoured and blessed to be recognized by one of America’s biggest and the most prestigious film festivals. This is my debut film in the lead role, which was a difficult one since it was a bit controversial as I challenge the main protagonist on his claim to intergrity and honesty and persuade him to think otherwise. I did not imagine I would be appreciated and awarded for it. It was indeed beyond my expectations.”
When asked about the actress’ feedback on this, she says, “I was overwhelmed with the wishes of near and dear ones as soon as the award title was announced. People showered love from all corners of the world and I was touched to know that people were moved by the emotional moments in the film. I was also pleased to hear when someone remarked, that I’m ‘uncognizable’ on screen.”
