Actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s latest film ‘Shaakuntalam’ bagged the ‘Best Indian Film’ award at the 76th Cannes World Film Festival. The makers of the film and the actress took to social media to express her gratitude for the win.
Along with ‘Best Indian Film’, Shaakuntalam bagged three more awards in the Best Costume Design, Best Foreign Film and Best Fantasy Film categories.
The makers of the movie shared about the awards in a tweet on Sunday.
Few more wins pic.twitter.com/Lst0sYCzU1
— Gunaa Teamworks (@GunaaTeamworks) May 28, 2023
Earlier, the film garnered accolades at the New York International Film Awards. The film bagged the titles of ‘Best Musial Film, and ‘Best Fantasy Film’ at the prestigious event. Sharing a picture of the awards, the makers of the film expressed their gratitude on Twitter.
“#Shaakuntalam bagged awards at the acclaimed New York International Film Awards, thank you to the jury,” they wrote.
#Shaakuntalam bagged awards at the acclaimed New York International Film Awards, thank you to the jury!@Gunasekhar1 @Samanthaprabhu2 @ActorDevMohan #ManiSharma @neelima_guna @GunaaTeamworks @SVC_official @tipsofficial pic.twitter.com/ApGDxZK3iR
— Gunaa Teamworks (@GunaaTeamworks) May 24, 2023
The mythological drama written and directed by Gunasekhar, is based on the Sanskrit epic 'Abhigyan Shakuntalam' written by ancient poet Kalidasa.
The film was released in five languages - Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi on April 14.
It is headlined by Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Dev Mohan in the lead role. Telugu superstar Allu Arjun’s daughter, Allu Arha, also made her debut with this film.
Samantha had earlier revealed that she had initially turned down the role of Shaakuntalam.
In an interview with TV9, Samantha said that when the offer was given to her she had just finished work with 'Family Man 2' in which she played the role of Raji. As the role was completely different from the one offered she was hesitant to accept it.
"Shakuntala is a symbol of purity, innocence, grace and dignity. Raji, on the other hand, was all about being gritty and real. I wasn’t sure if I could transform into Shakuntala at that point,” Samantha told TV9.
However, she ‘confronted her fears’ which bothered her for the last three years and accepted the offer to work in the film.
On the work front, Samantha will be next seen in the Indian adaptation of Amazon Prime Video’s ‘Citadel’ alongside Bollywood star Varun Dhawan. She is also working on the romantic drama ‘Kushi’ with Vijay Deverakonda, and the film is expected to be released in September.
