Bollywood period drama "Bajirao Mastani" has become one of the frontrunners with five nominations at the 10th Asian Film Awards. Sanjay Leela Bansali's historical romance starring Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer Singh is second in the race to the Hou Hsiao Hsien's "The Assassin," which is leading with nine nominations.
Celebrating the Asian cinema, Hong Kong International Film Festival Society will be honouring the film professionals for their excellent work in various fields of the film industry. The nominations list for the 10th AFA was unveiled on Feb. 3, Wednesday. The winners will be declared during the award ceremony held at the Venetian hotel in Macau on March 18, Thursday.
"Bajirao Masatani" will be competing with best of the bests for Best Film category. Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin," Jia Zhangke's "Mountains May Depart", Guan Hu's "Mr. Six," Ryoo Seung-wan "Veteran" and Ryosuke Hashiguchi's "Three Stories of Love" are some of the other Asian films are in the contest for the award.
Apart from "Best Film" category, the movie that is based on Nagnath S. Inamdar's Marathi novel named "Raau" has earned nominations for Best Costume Design (Anju Modi and Maxima Basu), Best Original Music (Nihar Ranjan Samal), Best Visual Effects (Prasad Sutar) and Best Editing (Rajesh Pandey).
As for the Chinese martial arts movie "The Assassin," it has earned nominations under the categories, including best film, director, actress, supporting actress, production design, original music, costume design, cinematography, and sound.
The official press release on the AFA website notes that the 10th AFA have 15 award categories for which they have selected 77 nominations representing 36 films from nine countries.
Apart from "Bajirao Mastani," several other Indian film professionals and movies have made way into various other categories at the annual award ceremony. Vicky Kaushal of "Masaan" has been nominated for Best Newcomer award. He is competing with Jessie Li (Port of Call), Fujino Ryoko (Solomon's Perjury, Solomon's Perjury 2), Kim Seol-hyun (Gagnam Blues), Lee Hong-Chi (Thanatos, Drunk), and Waruntorn Paonil (Snap).
Meanwhile, Vishal Bhardwaj has been earned nomination for Best Screenplay in "Talvar." Amit Trivedi (Bombay Velvet) for Original Music and Srinivas Mohan (Baahubali: The Beginning) for Best Visual Effects are among other Indians to earn nominations at the 10th AFA. Click here to view the entire nominations list as published on the official website.
Watch the official trailer of "Bajirao Mastani," below.
