Amar Kaushik, director of the horror comedy Stree, won the Best Debut Director award at Star Screen Awards recently. Starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead, the movie also won the Best Film award.
Kaushik, who was an assistant of the director-duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, was brought to direct Stree, scripted by them. Inspired by an urban legend, the movie was about a spirit that preyed on the men of the village. The movie was jointly produced by Raj & DK and Dinesh Vijan and also featured Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakthi Khuranna and Abhishek Banerjee.
At the 2018 Star Screen Awards, Ranveer Singh won the Best Actor award for his performance in Padmaavat, as Alauddin Khilji. Alia Bhatt won the Best Actress Award for Raazi. Ranveer and Alia will be seen together in Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy scheduled to release in February next year.
Sriram Raghavan won the Best Director award for Andhadhun while Rajkummar Rao won the Best Popular Actor award. He starred in Omerta, Fanney Khan, Stree and Love Sonia this year. Gajraj Rao and Neena Gupta, who played a married couple expecting a late child in the family-comedy Badhaai Ho, won the critics choice award for the Best Actor and Best Actress.
Recommended
Stree, Badhaai Ho and Andhadhun are believed to be the harbingers of change in a year that has seen small and medium budget films performing well as opposed to Thugs of Hindostan and Race 3 which were underwhelming experiences.
Meanwhile, it was also reported that the producers of Stree are caught up in a financial dispute over sharing of profits. The film had grossed over Rs 100 crore, and as per the initial agreement between the producers, profits were to be split equally. It was said that producer Dinesh Vijan did not seem ready to honour the agreement now.