'Gangubai Kathiawadi' writer Utkarshini Vashishtha on National Award: I had forgotten that I was waiting since 2012

Utkarshini Vashishtha

At six in the morning, when her phone wouldn't stop ringing, screenwriter Utkarshini Vashishtha didn't imagine that the calls were to congratulate her on the National Award wins for Gangubai Kathiawadi. "My first thought when I saw the phone ringing was, ‘Why am I getting a call from sir [Sanjay Leela Bhansali's] office?' The second thought I had was, ‘It's National Award, and maybe I have won?' Even then, I could only predict one, and honestly, I would've been more than happy with it, but two National Awards is beyond my dreams," she beams as she speaks to us from her US home.

Alia Bhatt in Gangubai Kathiawadi

Vashishtha shares the screenplay writer award with Bhansali and the award for dialogue with writer Prakash Kapadia. While it is the highest form of validation for her craft, it is also a reward for waiting almost a decade to get Gangubai to the screen. "I am getting messages like, ‘It's the payoff of your patience and perseverance.' I am shocked people noticed that. My journey of making the film during the lockdown and its release had been so eventful that I had forgotten that I was waiting since 2012." The Alia Bhatt-starrer was originally supposed to be made right after Guzaarish (2010).

The four National Award wins, including Bhatt's Best Actor nod have proved naysayers wrong. Proud of Bhatt's performance, Vashishtha says, "I am in awe of her talent. She is a shapeshifter. There's nothing that Alia can't do. She is brilliant, and she was destined to be Gangu."