Awards and accolades always boost an artiste’s morale and it encourages him/her to do better work. And, it’s even more special if you have won an award for your debut project. Filmmaker Satyaprakash Upadhyay would know. His directorial debut in the documentary space, ‘Bunkar - The Last of the Varanasi Weavers', has won the Best Film (Arts and Culture) at the 66th National Film Awards. Earlier this year, Satyaprakash had won the Best Debut Director (Documentary) award at the Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF 2019).
While he has assisted many Bollywood filmmakers previously, ‘Bunkar - The Last of the Varanasi Weavers' is his first independent non-feature film. The hour-long documentary revolves around the life of a weaver of Varanasi.
Needless to say, the director is thrilled to win the National Award. Talking to a daily, he said that this is the biggest honour an Indian filmmaker can get. He also said that the award brings with it “a lot of responsibility and expectations” as far as his future projects are concerned.
Satyaprakash also said that he hopes that his film will help the handloom weavers of Varanasi. He said that the root cause of their plight is the common man’s ignorance. For example, a huge section of buyers are not able to differentiate a Banarasi powerloom from a handloom. He said that such issues can be resolved only by spreading awareness.