Anna Ipe's stellar work on 'Neerja' fetched her a Filmfare Award for the best production design.As the Sonam Kapoor-starrer Neerja swept up awards at a glittering Filmfare Awards night in Mumbai on Saturday, Kerala was rejoicing too. For the best production design award went to Anna Ipe, a Keralite, for her work in the movie.
"I'm really, really excited. It feels so unreal," an elated Anna said over the phone from Mumbai.
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Anna's parents are in Kochi but she is based in Mumbai, where she works as a production designer with Equinox Films, an associate producer of Neerja.
"And it feels all the more special, because I won the award for Neerja. We tried to stay true to the original story and that makes it more exciting," she added.
The film narrates the true story of a courageous air-hostess on a Pan-Am flight, who lost her life while protecting hundreds of passengers after their flight was hijacked by terrorists in 1986.
Recreating 1986-setting in 2016
"That was the toughest aspect of the film. There was no reference point – it's all about the '70s and '90s. But we don't seem to have so much information on the in-between decade. It was challenging, yet it was fun," she said.
"We even managed to make a replica of the Pan-Am flight that was hijacked In 1986. It took around 43 days just to get that ready. And all the credit for that goes to Aparna Sud," she added.
Sud shared the best production design award with Anna.
"It was a great team to work with. All of them were so nice and it was a great experience," Anna said.
Destiny calling
Anna's phone has been super busy since Saturday as wishes and accolades continued to pour in. Her family back home in Kochi is also elated, she said.
"I have to thank my parents for this. Basically,I don't have any art background to speak of. But they didn't object when I got into production design," said Anna.
Neerja won the critics award for Best Film (Ram Madhvani) and Best Actor (Sonam Kapoor), while veteran artist Shabana Azmi won the award for Best Supporting Actor for her performance as Neerja's mother.
