Amborish Roychoudhury, author of In A Cult Of Their Own: Bollywood Beyond Box Office, became the second writer from Assam to win the National Film Award (Special Mention) for best book on cinema.
After 18 years, a writer from Assam has won the Best Book on cinema category at the 64th National Film Awards that were announced on Friday.
In 2001, renowned Assamese story teller Apurba Sarma garnered the national award for his book on Assamese cinema titled, Asoumiya Chalachitrar Chaa-Pohar.
Sarma was the first Assamese writer to win the National Film Award for best book on cinema.
Amborish said it was beyond his imagination that he would win the award for his book.
“I had not expected this to happen. Not by a long shot. When I heard the name announced, I was in shock (In a good way). I didn’t know how to process this information. I still don’t,” Amborish told Northeast Now.
“My book celebrates the good, bad and ugly of mainstream cinema, films that I consider cult. It was my perception that National Awards are reserved for more serious tomes and my work is not in that league, at least not my first book. Clearly, the jury thought otherwise,” said the young film critic.
The book is a unique look at various genres of Hindi cinema that fuses the serious with the tongue in cheek, the jury members said on the book.
Roychoudhury fluidly writes on some of the cult films, including some which have acquired their legendary status because of reasons other than cinematic, they said.
This book is a fine example of how cinema criticism can transcend quality or the lack of it in cinema itself.
Born in Kohima in Nagaland, Amborish spent his growing up period at different places in Northeast.
Amborish, who is currently based in Mumbai, did his schooling in Karimganj and completed his graduation from Gauhati Commerce College.
He has been writing on cinema for last several years. He started blogging a decade back and has written for Cine Blitz, Filmfare and Times of India.