Lipstick Under My Burkha wins Audience Award at CinemAsia Film Festival

Alankrita Shrivastava’s second film Lipstick Under My Burkha adds yet another feather to its cap with the Audience Award for the Best Feature Film at the recently concluded 10th CinemAsia Film Festival in Amsterdam. This latest honour is one of the many which have been bestowed on the film which currently under the scanner in India by the Central Board Film Certification on grounds the film was “lady-oriended [sic], their fantasy above life.”

CBFC refuses certificate to Prakash Jha's Lipstick Under My Burkha

CinemAsia festival director Lorna Tee introduced the film in Amsterdam saying, “We believe that films are voices. And voices should not be censored.” Shrivastava accepted the public award stating, “At a time when we are battling for the film to be allowed to be watched in India, the Audience Award means everything. It means that the people of Amsterdam have connected with the film at a heart-to-heart level. It is an affirmation of the fact that the voices of women cannot be silenced. And so for me, the victory of Lipstick Under My Burkha is the resounding victory for the voices of all the women of Asia regardless of country, race, religion or culture.”

Lipstick Under My Burkha wins the Audience Award at the Glasgow Film Festival

Shrivastava has been travelling with film as it screens in film festivals across the globe. It previously won the Audience Award for the Best Feature Film at the Glasgow Film Festival, the Oxfam Award for the Best Film on Gender Equality at 18th Mumbai Film Festival where it had its Indian premiere and the Spirit of Asia Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival where it first had its world premiere.

Producer Prakash Jha and writer-director Shrivastava have submitted the film to the Film Appellate Tribunal hoping to get clearance.