by Subhash K Jha

Deepa Mehta's Water has won the top honour at the Bangkok Film Festival and the ace director is pretty happy.

"I'm thrilled beyond words," says Deepa Mehta, hours after her much-lauded film Water won the top honour, the Golden Kinnaree award for best film at the Bangkok Film Festival on Saturday night.

"And to think I almost didn't come for this," said Deepa, speaking from Bangkok early Sunday morning. "I was just too tied up with a film's release. But I was told I had to be there. So I flew in just hours before the event. And when I saw how nice the jury members were being to me , I thought maybe Water does stand a chance."

But John Abraham and Lisa Ray were missing from the event.

Says Deepa, "I wish some of the cast had accompanied me here but both John and Lisa are busy with their respective work schedules and couldn't make it. Seema Biswas was supposed to come with me to Karachi. But she fractured her wrist and had to drop out at the last minute. Hota hai. No problem"

In Bangkok Deepa rubbed shoulders with some of cinema's greatest like Catherine Denueuve, Willem Dafoe and Charles Dance.

Amol Palekar's Paheli was also at the Bangkok film festival. Though in the non-competitive section.

Water is the first Hindi film to have won the top honour at any international film festival. "Can you believe that?' Deepa chuckles.

"And to think Water was disowned as not being 'Indian' or 'Hindu' enough. I wanted Water to be embraced by everyone, and it will be. I don't know what to call it , though. Except an Hindi film because technically it isn't an Indian film (it's a Canadian production). And I'd never use the term cross-over for my cinema."

But crossing over is exactly what Water will be doing when it opens on 28 April all over the US in mainstream cinema halls. "We aren't talking about theatres where Indians largely attend. Yup, Water has gone mainstream with an eighty-print release all over the US. But before that we've a large release at the end of March in Spain and Australia in April."

The film will finally be entered for the Oscars in the best foreign film where the general opinion is that Water will be the first Hindi fillm to win the award.