The Vijay starrer Mersal has won the Best Foreign Language Film at the 4th edition of the National Film Awards UK 2018. The award is given based on fan votes, it may be mentioned here.
The film had stiff competition in this sector with several films from various countries, such as Happy End (France), Loveless (Russia), In the Fade (Germany/France), The Square (Sweden, Germany, France), A Fantastic Woman (Chile), Vaya (South Africa) and The Insult (Lebanon), in contention for the award. It may be mentioned here that Vijay was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Award for the film.
Directed by Atlee, Mersal is an action thriller that has Vijay playing the lead role with Kajal Aggarwal and Samantha as the female leads. The others in the star cast playing supporting roles include SJ Surya, Vadivelu and Sathyaraj.
Despite facing some hurdles as it was caught up in a controversy after the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP demanded the removal of certain dialogues which criticised the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and digital India, Mersal was a box office success.
The film collected around Rs 251 crore worldwide, coming next only to Baahubali 2. The film performed exceptionally well overseas, especially in North America and even in countries like France and Australia. It has surpassed records held by Vishwaroopam in the US, Kabali in the UK and is very close to breaking Enthiran’s record in Malaysia.
Made on a huge budget of Rs 120 crores, the film was bankrolled by N Ramasamy, Hema Rukmani and H Murali under the banner Thenandal Studio Limited.
The film also has a strong technical crew with the Oscar winning music composer AR Rahman scoring the music, GK Vishnu cranking the camera and Ruben editing it. Released on October 18 last year on the occasion of Deepavali, the film had a massive pre-release buzz. Mersal went on to score a century at the box office.
As the news about Mersal bagging the prestigious international award came out, Vijay’s fans are elated. The star is currently busy playing the lead role in the untitled AR Murugadoss directorial which is due to hit the silver screens on November 7 to coincide with Deepavali this year. Produced by Sun Picture’s Kalanidhi Maran, the film has Keerthy Suresh playing the female lead.
(Content provided by Digital Native)