Bollywood director Vishal Bhardwajs latest project Hindi film Haider, an adaptation of William Shakespeares tragedy Hamlet, has bagged the Peoples Choice Award in the world category at the ninth edition of 9th Rome Film Festival..
Haider – an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Hamlet’, is set in the backdrop of Kashmir. Harider stars Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Tabu, Irrfan Khan and Kay Kay Menon in pivotal roles. Shahid, 33, who attended the festival with Bhardwaj, took to Twitter to announce the same.
“1st festival 1st win. Too much. Wowzaaaa. People’s choice in the main category at the Rome film festival… A first for an Indian film. #haider. Proud and humbled,” Shahid, who played the titular role in the film, tweeted along with a picture of him and Bhardwaj.
Shraddha, 25, who could not make it to the festival in Rome, also tweeted about her excitement. “We WON! #Haider – the 1st Indian film to win the main category of people’s choice award at Rome film festival! So humbled, grateful and proud!,” she wrote.
‘Haider’ released on October 2 worldwide and marked the third installment of Bhardwaj’s Shakespearean trilogy after ‘Maqbool’ and ‘Omkara’.
The movie evokes mixed reaction. A large sections Indian nationalists netizens called for boycott of the movie blaming it for showing Indian army in bad light for it’s operations in Kashmir. On the other hand Kashmiri authors were seen as criticizing the movie for presenting only the selected version of reality and further for attempting to shift the focus from political occupation of Kashmir to human rights violations only.