A moment of Pride for Indians globally. Renowned Indian Filmmaker Dr. Sohan Roy, honored with Better World Fund’s “5th Unity Award” at Cannes Film Festival.
Dr. Sohan Roy received the prestigious ‘Better World Fund’s ‘5th Unity Award’ at the Cannes Film Festival. The award was presented by Manuel Collas de la Roche, Founder and President of the Better World Fund, during the grand ceremony on July 12. To protect the global environment, in conjunction with Cannes Film Festival, the award function was organized to spread the message of ‘responsible mining.’
Dr. Sohan Roy is the first Indian to receive this honor. He received this prestigious honor alongside famous Hollywood directors Barry Alexander Brown and Spike Lee. Previous recipients of this award include Nobel, Oscar, and Grammy Award winners. His Excellency Prince Albert II, King of Monaco, and other famous Hollywood stars such as Forrest Whitaker, Sharon Stone, and Wim Wanderers were the Better World Fund Awards recipients in previous years. The committee stated that Sohan deserved this award for his outstanding commitment to industries, films, and efforts to strengthen environmental awareness.
‘Black Sand,’ his documentary on unscientific mining and environmental exploitation of Alappuzha, Kerala, won fourteen awards within three months, including Oscar shortlisting. His film ‘Mmmm – Sound of Pain,’ starring ace Football player I.M Vijayan, is centered around the importance of protecting the environment. It is also a film that revolves around environmental issues like climate change. He had also directed the documentary ‘Dams – The Lethal Water Bombs,’ which tells the story of one of the most devastating natural disasters in the world. It won over twenty-three international awards.
His debut film ‘Dam 999’ was screened at over 130 international film festivals and became the first Indian film to make it to the Oscars shortlist in the mainstream category. It is a film about a dilapidated century-old dam and the tragedy that follows after it collapses. The Mullaperiyar agitation started after the release of this film.
Founder Chairman & CEO of Aries Group, Sohan Roy, one of the world’s leading entrepreneurs who has successfully launched numerous eco-friendly ventures. One of his initiatives is Aries Green Solutions that offers sustainable maritime solutions. It is the world number one in the industry, successfully completing more than 1,500 retrofit engineering projects, including ballast water treatment systems (BWTS) and Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS). This is a rare achievement as the second-largest company in the world has been able to carry out only about 500 projects. Aries Green Solutions had received the “Best Green Maritime Consultant” at the International Green Shipping and Technology (GST) Summit in Athens, Greece, in 2019.
Sohan Roy also launched a $10 billion project called ‘Project Indywood,’ aiming to identify new possibilities in the world entertainment industry worth trillions of dollars. The concept behind this magnanimous project is to transform the fragmented Indian film industry into one of the most valuable brands in the global entertainment industry. As part of this, ‘Indywood Film Carnival’ was also organized at various venues, including Ramoji Film City.
In its latest Press release, Aries Group Management mentioned that it sees the award as a recognition of its many activities over the past decade, including environmental awareness and film industry innovation, and will continue to make humble efforts in this direction.
