6th Screenwriters Association Awards: Imtiaz Ali Dominates With 'Amar Singh Chamkila'; Kunal Kemmu Wins Debut Writing Honour

At the 6th Screenwriters Association Awards, General Secretary Zaman Habib addressed a packed room of over 200 screenwriters, joking that they had "enough people to stage a protest outside Netflix." The quip sparked a thunderous applause, echoing memories of Hollywood's historic 2023 WGA strike.

However, the evening wasn't only about rallying for change but also celebrating screenwriters who pushed boundaries, with filmmaker Imtiaz Ali's Amar Singh Chamkila dominating the evening, registering a near clean sweep at the ceremony.

The Diljit Dosanjh-led musical drama, which chronicled the pulsating story of the titular Punjabi musician, won the top honour in the best story and screenplay categories, which Imtiaz shared with his writer-brother Sajid Ali. The third win for the film, co-starring Parineeti Chopra, came for best lyrics for Irshad Kamil's track 'Baaja'. The lyricist, who has also penned the chart-buster Saiyaara title track, dominated the category with a record five nominations.

“A lot of things were proven tonight, including something that I had always believed: I am my own competition,” Irshad joked as he was called on stage to collect the award. Though Imtiaz was not present, Sajid accepted the honour and said getting recognised with an award from the fraternity made it more special.

The 15 categories at the SWA Awards featured over 1,500 entries and were judged by a jury of 15 esteemed screenwriters for over seven months.

In the feature film category, it was actor Kunal Kemmu who bagged the best dialogue award for his hilarious directorial debut, Madgaon Express. He was presented the award by filmmaker Ramesh Sippy and veteran writer Robin Bhatt, who had written Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke, the 1993 film in which Kemmu was the youngest child.

"This is my first writing nomination, my first writing award — and that too from the writing community. I even filled out the nomination form myself when I found out there was a list! This trophy is for my grandfather, Padma Shri Moti Lal Kemmu, who was a playwright from Jammu & Kashmir. I haven’t read much of his work, and he never got to see any of mine, but I’m sure he’s watching from above and is proud of me," the actor added.

The best debut feature film category saw all three nominees bagging the award: Shuchi Talati for Girls Will Be Girls, Biplab Goswami and Sneha Desai for Aamir Khan-backed Laapataa Ladies and Bodhayan Roychaudhury for Vikrant Massey-starrer Sector 36.

In the Web (drama) section, Nikkhil Advani-helmed Freedom At Midnight won two awards: best story for Abhinandan Gupta and best screenplay for Gupta, Adwitiya Kareng Das, Gundeep Kaur and Revanta Sarabhai. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha and writer Trishant Srivastava took home the best dialogue prize for their work in IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack.

While Raat Jawaan Hai emerged as the champion in the Web (Comedy/Musical/Romance) category, landing best dialogue and screenplay honours for Khyati Anand-Puthran, writers Atmika Didwania, Karan Singh Tyagi, Anand Tiwari, Sejal Pachisia and Digant Patil were awarded for 'best story’ for Bandish Bandits season 2.

In the television category, popular TV show Anupamaa won for best dialogues (penned by Sitaare Zameen Par writer Divy Nidhi Sharma and Aparajita Sharma) while Leena Gangopadhyay’s work on Iss Ishq Ka… Rabb Rakha landed best screenplay and Amitabh Singh Ramkshatra won best story for Jubilee Talkies. The best lyrics for TV/Web went to JUNO for 'Feeling Nayi Hai' from Gullak season 4.