Tanuja Chandra's English film 'Hope and a Little Sugar', which premiered in the South Asian International Film Festival in New York recently, has been judged the best feature film.

The film is produced by two Independent New York film producers, Glenn Russow and Scott Pardo, who contacted Tanuja by email after reading the script.

The entire pre-production was done on the Net as Chandra got her Indian crew ready, comprising actors Anupam Kher, Mahima Chaudhary among others and technicians.

In fact, she and her team of 25 people met the producers and the American crew for the first time when they arrived in New York for the shoot. The film was completed in 25 days, after which the editing was done via the net too, a release issued yesterday said.

Speaking about the film Chandra said, ''This was a very adventurous and innovative collaboration between two groups that had never known each other, both motivated by the script and the impulse to make a film that spoke about some very important issues to a global audience. It was the best possible way for the East and West to meet.''

She said the film was extremely well received in New York by an audience of NRIs as well as Americans. At the end of the screening, there was applause not just for the director and producers but also for each of the actors as well.

''People loved Anupam Kher's work who plays a retired army colonel. As a sardar living a happy life with a loving family in suburban New York, who is confronted with a tragedy during 9/11, Anupam has made the audience laugh and cry,'' she said.

''There is no doubt in my mind that even though he has enacted Sikh characters many times before in English films, with this one, he is going to make a mark for himself in international cinema,'' she said confidently.

According to the director, debutant Amit Sial, who plays protagonist in this Muslim-Sikh love story was also appreciated along with Mahima, who is working for the first time in an English film.

She said the producers are in the midst of discussions with leading distributors in the US, and are looking at showing 'Hope and a Little Sugar' at few more festivals before its theatrical release worldwide.

Tanuja said there is a song sung by Sonu Nigam during the end credits of the film. The producers happened to meet Nigam at one of his concerts in New York and when they got talking about this film, Sonu accepted the offer to sing.

''Sonu saw parts of the film and found it very moving, following which, he recorded a song with Wayne Sharpe, the music director,'' she added.