'Chauranga', 'Kaaka Muttai' win big at IFFLA

Los Angeles: Filmmaker Bikas Ranjan Mishra's "Chauranga" won the Best Feature (Grand Jury) award while M. Manikandan's “Kaaka Muttai” won the Best Feature award (Audience Choice) at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA).

It was also announced at the awards ceremony, held at West Sunset Boulevard here on Sunday, that Indian actresses Kalki Koechlin and Shweta Tripathi were in a tie as winners of the Best Actress award for “Margarita with a Straw” and “Haraamkhor” respectively.

“Chauranga”, co-produced by Sanjay Suri and Onir, stars Sanjay and Tannishtha Chatterjee and is a fictional account of six days in a dark corner of India, telling a story of violence of class oppression that still exists in rural India.

Onir tweeted: "Super Proud That our film #CHAURANGA won the BEST FEATURE - GRAND JURY prize at #IFFLA :). (sic)"

"Thrilled ! #CHAURANGA wins Best Feature (GRAND JURY) prize at #IFFLA2015 @bikas @IamOnir @TannishthaC @ArpitaCP," Sanjay tweeted.

The Best Short Film (Audience Choice) award was given to “Safar” by Pratyusha Gupta, while the Grand Jury prize in the same segment went to “Dandekar Makes A Sandwich” by Leena Pendharkar.