Shardul Bhardwaj has bagged a nomination for best actor at the New York Indian Film Festival for his performance in Suman Ghosh’s The Scavenger of Dreams, the filmmaker shared on social media on Monday.

Shardul is nominated alongside Amitabh Bachchan (The Umesh Chronicles), Athish Shetty (Mithya), Manish Dimri (Dear Latika), Mohit Agarwal (Agra) and Roshan Mathew (Paradise) in the best actor category.

Additionally, Ghosh’s latest documentary Parama: A Journey with Aparna Sen has also received a nomination in the best documentary (feature) category. It will be competing against Merchant Ivory, The House of Baruas, The World is Family and Zende: The Supercop.

“Our hero Shardul Bhardwaj got nominated for the Best Actor for ‘The Scavenger of Dreams’ at the New York Indian Film Festival. Proud of you man. My documentary Parama: A Journey with Aparna Sen got nominated for Best Documentary,” Ghosh wrote on Facebook.

Both films will be screened this weekend at the Village East Cinemas, New York, as part of the festival. Parama will be screened on June 1 at 6:15pm, while The Scavenger of Dreams will be screened on June 2 at 3:30pm.

Ghosh will be present at the event for the post-screening Q&A session.

In The Scavenger of Dreams, which had a world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in October 2023, Shardul plays Birju, a Dalit ragpicker living in a slum in Kolkata with his wife Shona (Sudipta Chakraborty) and their daughter. The story chronicles the experiences of the ragpicker couple who frequent affluent neighborhoods despite living in impoverished conditions.

Parama: A Journey with Aparna Sen premiered at the prestigious International Film Festival Rotterdam in January. It received the best documentary award at the Indian Film Festival of Houston earlier this year.

The 2024 edition of New York Indian Film Festival will be held from May 31 to June 2. Tarsem Singh’s Dear Jassi will open the festival, while Arati Kadav’s Mrs. is the closing film.