Deepti Naval to Receive Excellence in Cinema Award at MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2019

Deepti Naval will be honoured with Excellence in Cinema Award (India) at the upcoming Jio MAMI 21st Mumbai Film Festival. The award, chosen by Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image board members, recognises an individual with outstanding contributions to the world of cinema.

Naval joins the long list of names over the years who have been honoured for their impact on the industry. For more than four decades, she has bewitched the audience with rich and playful characters. As engrossing as she is on the big screen, she’s equally so behind the camera as a director.

She made her acting debut with Shyam Benegal's 1979 film Junoon, set around the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Two years later, she starred in Vinod Pande's offbeat social drama Ek Baar Phir, wherein her earnest portrayal of a film star's wife from a middle class background brought her much critical acclaim. Since then, Naval has acted in more than 60 films. She has appeared in classics such as Kamla, Ankahee, Chashme Buddoor, Saath Saath, Kissi Se Na Kehna, Katha and Rang Birangi.

Apart from acting, Naval made her feature film directing debut with Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish, starring Manisha Koirala and Rajit Kapoor. The film won the Best Screenplay Award at the 2009 New York Indian Film Festival but remains unreleased.

Naval's most recent project includes Made in Heaven, in which she plays the founder of Era School Society, Gayatri Mathur, who wants to see her disapproving children at her wedding.

Meanwhile, Brazilian filmmaker and screenwriter Fernando Meirelles, who is the force behind the critically acclaimed movie City of God, will receive the Excellence in Cinema Award (International). He will also hold a masterclass on the process of film-making and his upcoming biographical comedy-drama The Two Popes, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce.

City of God received worldwide critical acclaim and was nominated for four Oscars at the 76th Academy Awards, including Best Director for Meirelles and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) for Braulio Mantovani.