It's been a long hard struggle: National Award winner Hansal Mehta

The National Award for Best Director for Hansal Mehta is huge vindication for this enormously talented director. On hearing the announcement of the honour Hansal said, “I am glad I won the National Award for Shahid and not for any other film. Shahid has changed my life. Making this film about this fearless lawyer has made me fearless. I don’t think about any external circumstance any more. I’ll just make the films that I want to. My life is now sharply divided into two halves. What came before and what will come after Shahid.” Hansal is doubly delighted that his leading man Rajkummar Rao won the National Award for Best Actor for Shahid. “I feel my son has won the gold medal in the school sports. I don’t think I’d have been this proud if I had won the National Award, and not Raj. Shahid is a joint triumph for us.” The filmmaker who began his directorial career with Jayate in 1997 says he has no time to celebrate his triumph. “I want to host a party with Raj. But I am busy with the post-production of Citylights which again stars Rajkummar Rao. I’m pleading with my producer Mukesh Bhatt to give me one day off so we can celebrate.” Ends Hansal, “It’s been a log hard struggle for me. I never expected Shahid to become so big. It has changed many lives including mine.”