Producer Lokesh Dhar has spoken candidly about the extraordinary journey of Article 370 — from a first release by a fledgling studio to a triple winner at the 72nd National Film Awards. The film claimed Best Feature Film, Best Actress for Yami Gautam Dhar, and Best Music Director for Shashwat Sachdev, emerging as one of the ceremony's biggest stories.

The Underdog Origin

Lokesh Dhar, co-founder of B62 Studios, shared a detailed personal note on Instagram reflecting on what the recognition meant. 'Article 370 was the first film we released at B62 Studios, almost two years ago,' he wrote. 'Our intention was to bring stories to the screen that keep us awake at night; the ones that stay with you long after the lights go off. The odds weren't in our favour. And it's great to be the underdog.'

The studio's debut bet on a politically charged, real-event-based narrative was far from a safe commercial play. That it has now been validated by the country's highest film honour adds a sharp arc to the B62 story.

What the National Award Win Means

Dhar expressed deep gratitude to the 72nd National Film Awards jury, calling the triple win 'an honour.' He also acknowledged the wider audience response: 'For the audience to have shown this film so much love, along with the love they've shown to Dhoom Dhaam, Baramulla and Dhurandhar, is beyond words.'

Notably, the wins signal that the jury recognised the film across creative disciplines — narrative, performance, and score — rather than a single technical achievement. Yami Gautam Dhar's Best Actress award in particular is being seen as a career-defining moment.

The Personal Memory Behind the Film

In a reflective passage, Lokesh Dhar tied the film's ethos to a childhood memory of storytelling in Kashmir. 'When the electricity went out in the evenings, the silence was broken by news from a battery-operated radio, tuned to Radio Kashmir. When that ended, the stories began. The elders would sit on the floor on woollen carpets and narrate larger-than-life tales where the rivers ran wider, the snow lay deeper and the icicles hung longer,' he wrote.

He described this oral tradition as the spiritual foundation for B62 Studios' filmmaking philosophy — honouring stories that outlast the people who lived them.

Credits and Collaborators

Article 370 was directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale and co-produced by Aditya Dhar, Jyoti Deshpande of Jio Studios, and Lokesh Dhar. In his note, Lokesh was careful to credit the full ecosystem: 'None of this would exist without the people who built it with us: our incredible cast and crew, our director, our writers, Jio Studios, and the friends and family who stood by us through it all. This is as much theirs as it is ours.'

With the National Award recognition now official, attention will turn to how B62 Studios builds on this debut success with its subsequent slate.