India, Sept. 23 -- Filmmaker Atul Pandey's audio-visual biographical documentary on legendary poet Nida Fazli, Main Nida, was awarded the Best Arts/Culture Film Award at the 72nd National Film Awards on Monday. Reflecting on the honour, Pandey shares, "Standing in front of our president to receive an award that too for your debut project is absolutely surreal."

Explaining how Main Nida came into being, Pandey recalls, "There was this guy who met me and he had some footage in his library of Nida Sahab, as he had done some shows with the legendary poet. This person wanted to make a film, but couldn't due to several reasons. As a lover of poetry, languages, and a passionate storyteller, I wanted people to closely know the real Nida Fazli-a ...