‘Barfi!’ dominates India’s 58th Filmfare Awards

It is still weeks until the Oscars, but India has already celebrated their oldest and most prominent film festival on Sunday in Mumbai for the 58th Filmfare Awards. The movie Barfi! won 7 awards including best film and best actor.

Starting in 1954,The Filmfare Awards are presented annually by The Times of India media group, to honor Hindi language films. It is often referred to as the Hindi Film industry’s Oscars, according to Digital Spy.

Barfi!, written and directed by Anurag Basu, is a romantic comedy film. It features a love triangle among Barfi, a mute and a deaf boy from Darjeeling, and two girls. The actor Ranbir Kapoor won the best actor for his portrayal of the deaf and mute young man, reported The Hollywood Reporter. Barfi is not only the character’s name, but also a traditional Indian sweet.

According to Wikipedia, Barfi! was selected as India’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film nomination for the 85th Academy Awards this upcoming February. Unfortunately, it didn’t enter into the final round. But it was a box-office success and is one of the highest grossing Bollywood films of 2012 in India. Director Basu later announced that he planned an English version of this film.

Other winners in the awards include Sujoy Ghosh for best director and Vidya Balan for best actress for Kahaani. The late director Yash Chopra received the lifetime achievement, reported New York Daily News.