Liar’s Dice rolls into Oscars, Sikkim celebrates

The movie which secured a national award for Sikkim’s Geetanjali Thapa, has now also worked its way to becoming India’s entry for the Oscars in the foreign language category. Liar’s Dice, in which Geetanjali co-stars with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is written and directed by Geethu Mohandas.
The development has triggered much excitement in Sikkim and congratulations and best wishes have started pouring in starting from Raj Bhawan itself with Governor Shriniwas Patil extending warm greetings and congratulations to Geetanjali over the film’s nomination.
A press communiqué issued by Raj Bhawan conveys, “The Governor also conveys his good wishes and prayed for her success in the Oscar. Ms. Geetanjali Thapa has also been assured all possible help from Hon’ble Governor in the days to come.”
Liar’s Dice is the story of a woman (Geethanjali Thapa) who sets out in search of her missing husband along with her daughter and a pet lamb. The director, Ms. Mohandas, introduces the movie as a “very simple story” with a “political undercurrent”.
Geetanjali is clearly at the centre of things in the movie, and in the words of Ms. Mohandas, she hasn’t seen “a finer actor than Geethanjali in India”.

Geetanjali Thapa wins National Film Award

GANGTOK, 16 Apr: Sikkim’s Geetanjali Thapa has won the prestigious National Film Award for her performance in the film, “Liar’s Dice”. The 61^st National Film Awards for 2013 were announced today in New Delhi and the Best Actress 2013 award has been awarded to Geetanjali.
The awards, instituted by the Directorate of Film Festivals, GoI, were announced today at a press conference held at the National Media Centre, new Delhi today.
“If ever an actress could merge completely into a role and look the character to perfection, it is Geetanjali Thapa. Her searching eyes and vulnerability are breath taking,” is how the awards list describes her performance in the Hindi film, Liar’s Dice. She stars with Nawazuddin Siddiqui [Kahani, Gangs of Wasseypur II] in the film which is directed and written by Geethu Mohandas.
Geetanjali debuted with Prashant Rasaily’s short film, Myth, in 2006 when she was still in school at TNA. Her first major signing, Tina Ki Chaabi, never saw the light of day but her work in her next film, “I.D.”, fetched her two international awards for best actress at the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Madrid Film Festival.
In the critically acclaimed Liar’s Dice, Geetanjali plays a courageous and somewhat reckless woman from the high Himalayas and mother to a precocious little daughter in search of her missing husband.
Geetanjali is also starring opposite Emraan Hashmi in Oscar-winning director Danis Tanovic's Indian film “White Lies” which is currently in the post-production phase at the moment while she is also slated to act in “The Informer” with Abhay Deol. Her other films include Monsoon Shootout and That Day After Everday released in 2013.
While the names of the winners were announced today, the award ceremony is scheduled to be held on 03 May, next month.

Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao, who impressed all with his performance of a Kashmiri lawyer in ‘Shahid’ has won the Best Actor award, as has Suraj Venjaramoodu for “Perariyathavar” (Malayalam).