Sakuntalam
Sakuntalaṃ (Sanskrit Language: Śakuntalā) is a Sanskrit language historical film directed by Dushyanth Sridhar, a renowned speaker, writer and researcher on Indian scriptures. It is an adaptation of Kalidasa's work Abhijnana Shakuntalam.[1][2] The film is produced by Dushyanth Sridhar and Srinivas Kannaa under Desika Daya Productions. The movie stars debutants Shubham Sahrawat and Payal Shetty in the leading roles.[3] The movie was released on 12-Aug 2022 in BookMyShow Stream OTT platform commemorating the World Sanskrit Day.
| Sakuntalam | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Dushyanth Sridhar | 
| Produced by | Dushyanth Sridhar  Srinivas Kannaa under (Desika Daya Productions)  | 
| Starring | Payal Vijay Shetty Shubham Jaibeer Sahrawat Y Gee Mahendra T V Varadarajan Mohanram  | 
| Cinematography | Magi Natesh | 
| Edited by | B Lenin | 
| Music by | Rajkumar Bharathi(music Director), Sai Shravanam(Music producer) | 
Production company  | Desika Daya Productions  | 
Release date  | 
  | 
Running time  | 96 minutes | 
| Country | India | 
| Language | Sanskrit | 
Cast and Crew
    
Apart from the Director and producer, there are some key people who are associated with this film project. Rajkumar Bharati, the great-grandson of Subramania Bharathi, has composed the music while Sai Shravanam, the sound recordist of the Academy Award-winning film Life Of Pi, is the music producer for the film. Two-time National Award-winner AS Lakshminarayan has done the audiography and the editing of the film is done by five-time National Award-winner B Lenin.[4] National Award Winner Pattanam Rasheed is the makeup artist in the film. The costume designer of the film is a Chennai-based textile designer Lakshmi Srinath.[1]
- Payal Vijay Shetty as Sakuntala
 - Shubham Jaibeer Sahrawat as Dushyanta
 - Siri Chandrasekhar as Anasuya
 - Subhaga Santhosh as Priyamvada
 - Pavithra Srinivasan as Gautami
 - Y Gee Mahendra as Kanva
 - T V Varadarajan as Vaikhanasa
 - Mohanram as Durvasa
 - Renjith-Vijna as Vishwamitra-Menaka
 - Sanjeev S as Sharngarava
 - R Lakshminarayanan as Shardvata
 - Raaghav Ranganathan as Madhavya
 - C Lakshmi Kumar as Bhadrasena
 - S M Sivakumar as Somarata
 - Ramya Ramnarayan as Rajamata
 - Maanas Chavali as Syala
 - Govindasamy as Purusha
 - K Balaji and K Bharathwaj as Tapasvi
 - Shambhavi Jagadish as Tapasvini
 - Dwarkesh Srivatsan as Raivataka
 - Master Vishnu Kaushik as Bharata(Sarvadamana)
 - C S Karthic Kumar as Suta
 - Harish as Matali
 
Critical Response and Accolades
    
At the Rajasthan International Film Festival 2022 held at Jodhpur, the movie won the Special Viewers' choice award for Best Regional Feature Film.[5] Tejas Punia in Bollywoodlocha awarded 4 stars for the movie while saying, "Sridhar has made his debut movie in a very beautiful manner, no matter how many times you have read this work, you will want to watch this movie".[6]
References
    
- Ramanujam, Srinivasa (3 November 2021). "If you can watch 'Squid Game', you can watch a Sanskrit film: Dushyanth Sridhar on 'Sakuntalam'". The Hindu.
 - "Dushyanth Sridhar helms a Sanskrit film based on Kalidasa's Sakuntalam - Times of India". The Times of India.
 - Vijaykumar, Vaishali (27 October 2021). "Stepping up for Sanskrit on the sliver screen". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
 - "If you happen to can watch 'Squid Recreation', you possibly can watch a Sanskrit movie: Dushyanth Sridhar on 'Sakuntalam'". Indie Times. 3 November 2021.
 - "RIFF | Rajasthan International Film Festival, RIFF Jaipur, Jaipur RIFF, riff 2023, 1st to 5th Feb 2023 at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan largest Film Festival in JAIPUR, JODHPUR, JAISALMER, Rajasthan, INDIA".
 - "गौरवशाली इतिहास की गाथा 'शाकुन्तलम' में". 17 August 2022.
 
External links
    
- Sakuntalam at IMDb