after clinching a national award and sweeping all top honours in iffk director jayarajs ottal continued its golden streak by winning big at the berlin international film festival the film based on anton chekhovs short story vanka was awarded the crystal bear award for the best childrens film the movie explores the theme of child labour through the relationship of a young boy and his grandfather incidentally ottal is the third consecutive indian film to be honoured at the film fest after avinash aruns killa in 2014 and nagesh kukunoors dhanak in 2015 jayaraj had earlier told us different juries have picked the film and i think thats because ottaal conveyed an emotion that appealed to everyone equally i think its that sincerity of the subject and the emotional element that have been rewarded the director was also pleased about how he approached the sensitive subject ottals talks about the painful reality of child labour we could have approached in a manner where it is a torture for the kid but instead we chose to go the route where we could give importance to his beautiful inspiring environment he grew up in and how it gets taken away from him i think our decision to maintain that ratio was brilliant he says