My cell phone kept ringing middle of the night. I was too sleepy to do anything about it except curse and hit out wildly in its general direction. Woke up in the morning to see tons of texts messages. Wondered what the deal was. It wasn’t my birthday or anniversary, or Eid or Diwali or Christmas. Read the first one and felt a wave of warmth pass through me.

Padma Bhushan.

Wow!

Felt so happy, and such a sense of pride. How I wish I was back home in India. Called my mom, and my brother and sisters. But still felt a huge void of not being back in India. Don’t know how to explain it.

Want to thank my country for this honour.

Vande Mataram, ma tujhe salaam.

Want to thank all my well wishers, my fans, for their love, respect and unwavering support over all these years.

Thanks guys.

Another piece of good news is that our film Peepli Live was really well received here at the Sundance Film Festival. We had our first screening on the 24th at the Egyptian Theatre, Park City. Super reaction right through the film, and huge ovation at the end. Audience really seemed to love it. In fact you can read some of the responses on the festival site. Go to http:/festival.sundance.org/2010 , click on film guide, then search for Peepli Live

Also check out the review in Screen International online by David D'Arcy dated 25th Feb.

I was really keen to see the reaction here at Sundance as I wanted to get a sense of how a non-Indian audience reacts to the film. 90% of the audience was non-Indian. I am now even more certain that this film has the potential to engage a world audience. The big challenge, when we release the film worldwide, will be to get them in. It doesn’t have any stars, and is in a language that they don’t understand.

START THINKING GUYS, I NEED ALL THE HELP AND ADVICE I CAN GET ON THIS ONE!!!

In the meantime...

Ganatantra din Mubarak.

Love.