Imtiaz Ali's Amar Singh Chamkila was named 'The Breakout Film of the Year' at the 15th Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) and the director hopes the movie continues its winning spree at other awards, including the National Awards which bestowed Gulmohar , a direct-to-digital release, with three honours. Amar Singh Chamkila , a biopic on the slain Punjabi singer who was known as the 'Elvis Presley of Punjab', was released directly on Netflix on April 12, 2024. It marked the filmmaker's feature film debut on a streamer.
At the 15th Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) awards gala, held on Friday, the movie was announced as 'The Breakout Film of the Year'. "There was confusion about whether films that are released direct-to-digital will be allowed to participate in National Awards but I think there's a verdict on that now which is in favour of direct-to-digital films. I'm hoping the National Awards will look kindly on Amar Singh Chamkila ," Ali told PTI in an interview from Melbourne.
Gulmohar, a film about a family getting ready to say goodbye to their ancestral home, won three National Awards for the year for 2022 for best Hindi film, best dialogue writing for director Rahul V Chittella and special mention for actor Manoj Bajpayee. It released on Disney Hotstar in 2023. Ali described "Amar Singh Chamkila", fronted by Diljit Dosanjh, a people's film.
"What I personally liked about the film is that it is made out of metros and mini-metros, and it goes into the heartlan.