Jaya Prada, Once Again, Yours Truly, Hamid honoured at Rajasthan International Film Festival

The Rajasthan International Film Festival was wrapped up in Jaipur last week with a whole slew of awards handed out at the closing ceremony and awards night. On 23 January, several independent films received a much needed boost as they were singled out for their work at the festival. The festival handed 72 awards over different categories, to national and international entries, national and regional films from across the nation.

In the special awards categories, the Lifetime Achievement Award in Hindi Cinema was given to Kamal Kumar Barjatya of Rajshri Productions. Actress Jaya Prada received the Honorary Award for Excellence for Contribution in Cinema.

Living Idle (2017) by Ramana won the Best Short Film (National), while actor Vikrant Massey won the Special Jury Award for Best Actor in Short Film (National) for Gadheho (2018), based on a Rajasthani folk story.

The World's Most Famous Tiger, about Machli, the queen of Ranthambore, picked up Best Documentary Film in the documentary category. Studio Eeksaurus added another trophy to their haul when their short film Tokri (2018) won Best Animation Film.

In the feature film category, Kanwal Sethi's Once Again (2018) won Best Hindi Feature Film, while the unreleased Life Is Good, directed by Anant Mahadevan, won the Special Jury Award for Best Hindi Feature Film. Lead actor Jackie won Best Actor for his performance in the film.

Hamid picked up two big wins — Aijaz Khan won Best Director, while Rasika Duggal was awarded Best Actress for her work on the film. She was also honoured for her performance in Once Again.

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Khejdi (2018), starring Ashish Sharma, won the Special Viewer's Choice Award. Khejdi's Archana Sharma also picked the trophy for Best Script Writer. Mulk (2018) was honoured with the Best Story award.

I Am Zero's Suraj Tiwari won the Best Debut Director for the upcoming film, while Yours Truly, starring Soni Razdan, won Special Critic Award for Best Hindi Feature Film. Turtle (2018), starring Sanjai Mishra, fetched its filmmaker Dinesh Yadav the Special Critic Award for Best Director.

Finally, the Special Jury Award for Best Director was awarded to Srivinay Salian and Abhijit Kokate for Rakkhosh. Producer Sayali Deshpande picked up the award on behalf of the directors.