Enna Vilai takes Best Screenplay at Dada Saheb Phalke fest

Enna Vilai has taken Best Screenplay at the 16th Dada Saheb Phalke International Film Festival in New Delhi, ahead of its theatrical release. The Karunaas and Nimisha Sajayan-led socio-political family thriller, directed by Sajeev Pazhoor and produced by Githesh V under Kalamaya Films, picked up the award at the festival’s awards night. Producer and director collected the certificate on stage in Delhi.

A screenplay award before release is the kind of marker that producers usually hope to manufacture later in the cycle. Pazhoor’s writing has carried weight before, and Enna Vilai’s pitch leans into that. “Winning the Best Screenplay award validates the strength of our story and the effort the team has put in,” Githesh V said, “but Enna Vilai is a film made for the big screen, it’s engaging, emotional, and has all the elements that will connect with a wide audience.” Pazhoor framed it as recognition for material drawn from a specific, lived register: “The story of Enna Vilai comes from a very rooted and real space.”

The supporting ensemble around Karunaas and Sajayan is unusually deep for a mid-budget Tamil release: Y Gee Mahendran, Poornima Bhagyaraj, Mohan Ram, Lollu Sabha Swaminathan, Kavithayala Krishna, Deepa Shankar, Mottai Rajendran and Nakkalites Kavi among others. Production was unusually wide too, with the film shot across 56 locations including Rameswaram, Chennai, Pondicherry and Kochi over multiple schedules.

A theatrical date and the next promotional rollout, the makers said, are next.