Captain Miller's National Award: Arun Matheswaran wants to write more

When the 72nd National Film Awards were announced late on Saturday, Captain Miller landed in one of the more loaded categories on the list: Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values. Director Arun Matheswaran was glad it registered there, and specific about why.

“I am happy that Captain Miller got this type of recognition as one of the goals was to highlight the issue of equality,” he said. The award was one half of a strong night for the film. Dhanush, who plays the title role, drew a Special Mention for his performance. “I thank Sathya Jyothi Films and Dhanush sir for their support,” Arun said. “Seeing Dhanush sir getting recognised for this film is a testament to the efforts he took for this film.”

The recognition, he added, “on a national level motivates us to write more and create more.” What he was careful not to do was accept the label the category invites. Asked whether the win would push him toward writing more social causes into his films, he drew a line between the two. “I write social causes into a story as I write the story, I don’t write the story around social causes,” he said. “But the hope is to bring more awareness to underrepresented causes.”

Released in 2024, Captain Miller is a period revenge drama with Dhanush as a man who turns on British colonisers to protect his village. The ensemble around him included Shivarajkumar, Priyanka Mohan, Nivedhithaa Sathish, Aditi Balan, Sundeep Kishan and Vinoth Kishan. GV Prakash Kumar scored the film, and had a National Award night of his own, taking Best Background Music for Amaran.

It was a bigger evening still for Dhanush, whose Raayan was named the year’s best Tamil film, part of a broad Tamil haul at the ceremony. Arun, meanwhile, has already moved on to his next: DC, a project with Lokesh Kanagaraj that recently locked a release date.