Naga woman wins Mahatma Gandhi National Award

Dimapur, Aug.18 (EMN): A Mumbai-based filmmaker and social worker from Nagaland, Rebecca Changkija Sema, was conferred with the Mahatma Gandhi National Award 2020 on the occasion of the 4th international Web Conference on Global Peace organised by the Mahatma Gandhi Global Peace Forum for her unconditional contribution towards the society.

A total of 14 personalities from various parts of the country, who are working in the field of humanity, peace and brotherhood, were felicitated with the award on the occasion.

A member of the advisory panel at Censor Board Mumbai and founder of ‘Northeast Unsung Heroes,’ a non-profit organisation, Sema promotes tourism and talented youths from the Northeast region through cinema and social work.

“This was always on my bucket list. Luckily, in our team we all share the same spirit. It’s time to pay back to our society. We meet people from different walks of life; their silent contributions have not been recognised. We have a moral obligation to lift it up, acknowledge the elephant in the room,” Rebecca said.

Rebecca stated that the ‘Northeast Unsung Heroes Red Carpet Social Awards 2019’ was held in Mumbai in the presence of the Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), where 23 unsung heroes from NE were felicitated.

“The journey started from my home town at 1st Nagaland Unsung Heroes 2018,

then 1st Sikkim Unsung Heroes 2018. This was the first time the whole eight NE states coming under one umbrella is being held in the financial capital,” Rebecca stated.

Celebrities like Mahima Chaudhary, Zeenat Aman have supported the initiative in Nagaland and Sikkim.

“Decade ago, when I first met people in Mumbai, many of them never heard about Nagaland, Northeast India, and I was really taken back. They took so long to accept me as one of them. Mostly people used to think, we are less talented/ lack of intelligence/ knowledge, so I wanted to break this ‘hide and seek’ game with my little capacity through cinema and social work,” stated Rebecca.

To her credit, Rebecca has made five Hindi commercial movies and two documentaries.

“Our films are mostly shot in different parts of the Northeast India with new faces from our region. Artistes from Northeast region deserve every inch of platform in respective of different professions.

“They love our right culture, hospitality, food habits. It is just so different now. Coming days, people will see more of our Northeastern India talented artistes/ culture/ beautiful visual,” Rebecca added.