ADVERTISEMENTs
Vinod Kapri’s Pyre bags five awards in three weeks
The film won Best Film Audience Award at the 16th Chicago South Asian Film Festival and the Best Director Award in the International Competition at the Novi Sad International Film Festival in Serbia.
-
Staff Reporter - Tue, 23, Sep 2025
- 17:14 EDT
- 13
Vinod Kapri’s awards for his film 'Pyre' and poster of the film. / Courtesy Photo
Indian filmmaker Vinod Kapri’s Pyre added two more international honors to its recent winning streak, taking its tally to five awards across the United States and Europe in just three weeks.
The film won Best Film Audience Award at the 16th Chicago South Asian Film Festival, presented by actor Shabana Azmi with Pratik Gandhi also on stage. In Europe, Kapri was named Best Director in the International Competition at the Novi Sad International Film Festival in Serbia.
Also Read: Vinod Kapri's 'Pyre' wins three major US awards in one week
Earlier this month it also won Best Feature Film at the 14th DC South Asian Film Festival, followed by Best Feature Film and Best Director at the 8th India International Film Festival of Boston.
These awards follow earlier recognition in July, when Pyre received the Grand Jury Best Feature Film Award — the “German Star of India Award” — at the Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart, as well as Audience Choice Awards in Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Featuring non-professional actors Padam Singh and Heera Devi, Pyre depicts an elderly couple in a Himalayan village grappling with isolation and mortality until the arrival of a letter from their estranged son alters the course of their lives.
At screenings, the film has been noted for its authenticity, with one viewer describing it as reminiscent of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and another calling it “worthy of the Oscars.”
The film’s origins lie in Kapri’s 2017 visit to Munsyari, Uttarakhand, where he met an elderly couple living in near-abandonment. The man, who kept goats to barter for help in carrying his wife to medical care, left a remark that shaped the script: “As long as I have goats, she will survive. Before the goats are done, we will be gone.”
Kapri eventually cast Singh, a retired soldier, and Devi, a farmer, from Pithoragarh. Their lived experience contributes to the film’s naturalism, which critics have pointed to as one of its defining qualities.
The film shows the couple’s daily routines — gathering firewood, tending animals, and confronting frailty — without embellishment, presenting an unvarnished view of ageing and abandonment in the hills.
The production team includes composer Mychael Danna, Amrita Vaz, editor Patricia Rommel and poet-lyricist Gulzar, who wrote a song for the film. Thematically, Pyre highlights the wider migration-driven decline of Uttarakhand’s villages, where ageing residents are often left behind as younger generations move to cities.
Related
.jpg)
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
E Paper
ADVERTISEMENT
Video
Comments
Start the conversation
Become a member of New India Abroad to start commenting.
Sign Up Now
Already have an account? Login