Filmmaker and screenplay writer Shalini Ushadevi is flying high on accolades as she bags her first National Film Award for Best Screenplay (original) for the Tamil film Soorarai Pottru, which she co-wrote with Sudha Kongara, the film’s director. In fact, Soorarai Pottru, partly inspired by the life and times of entrepreneur Captain G R Gopinath of low-cost carrier Air Deccan, won five National Awards — the most for any film this year — including the awards for Best Film, Best Actor for Suriya and Best Actress for Aparna Balamurali, its lead stars.
As someone who often shuns the limelight and prefers to let her work talk, we find Shalini at her home in Thiruvananthapuram fielding dozens of congratulatory calls, posing for photos and being garlanded with innumerable ponnadas (shawls) from well-wishers. Taking a breather she says, a tad self-consciously, “The award came as a pleasant surprise. All the attention, not so much! I am touched by all the support, though.”
