Imtiaz Ali’s directorial ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’ was bestowed with the three top honours at the 6th edition of the Screenwriters Association Awards, which honours groundbreaking films, series and TV shows of 2024 that pushed the envelope of storytelling.

Held in Mumbai on Aug 9, a PTI report, quoting a press release, stated that there were 1,500 entries and 15 categories, which were judged by a jury of 15 esteemed screenwriters for over seven months.

Helmed by Imtiaz, ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’ was released on April 12, 2024, featuring Diljit Dosanjh in the titular role, and Parineeti Chopra as his love interest. The film was nominated in four categories, winning three out of them.

Imtiaz and his screenwriter brother Sajid Ali took home two trophies for best story and best screenplay. The third award went to lyricist Irshad Kamil for his work on the track ‘Baaja’ in the film.

“Thank you, SWA. Getting this award from the fraternity makes it more special,” Sajid said on his win. Irshad said he is happy to win the honour. “A lot of things were proven tonight, including something that I had always believed: I am my own competition…It’s not easy for a writer to write. There’s an entire universe in their soul, which they summon up to write.

“It was difficult for me to understand how Chamkila would write. I am so happy I won it for ‘Baaja’.”

In the feature film category, Kunal Kemmu, who made his directorial debut with ‘Madgaon Express’, bagged the best dialogue award for his film.

“This means so much. I’m so excited, and honestly, I’m borderline emotional right now. 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,” Kunal said in his acceptance speech.

In the best debut feature film category, there were three winners: Shuchi Talati for ‘Girls Will Be Girls’, Biplab Goswami and Sneha Desai for ‘Laapataa Ladies’ and Bodhayan Roychaudhury for ‘Sector 36’.

In the Web (Drama) section, ‘Freedom At Midnight’ got two awards: best story for Abhinandan Gupta and best screenplay for Gupta, Adwitiya Kareng Das, Gundeep Kaur and Revanta Sarabhai. Anubhav Sinha and Trishant Srivastava won the best dialogue award for their work in ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’.

‘Raat Jawaan Hai’ won in the Web (Comedy/Musical/Romance) category for 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 two.

In the television section, ‘Anupamaa’ won best dialogues, written by Divy Nidhi Sharma and Aparajita Sharma. Leena Gangopadhyay got an award for best screenplay for her work in ‘Iss Ishq Ka… Rabb Rakha’, and Amitabh Singh Ramkshatra won best story for ‘Jubilee Talkies’.

The best lyrics for the TV/Web award went to JUNO for ‘Feeling Nayi Hai’ from ‘Gullak’ season four.