Nine-year-old director, producer and scriptwriter from Mumbai Anshul Khosla has won the ''Best Script'' award for his documentary Love Changes Everything at the inaugural Young Film Makers Film Festival at Toronto in Canada.
Anshul, a student of St Dominic Savio High School, won the award in the Under-10 category and his was the only entry from India.
Anshul, who has just passed standard IV, based his documentary on the true-life stories of street children.
Anshul, who empathises with the less privileged, was moved by the plight of street children -- some of whom are taken care of by the Don Bosco, Wadala, shelter which is run by Salesian priests.
Following his visit to the shelter on a social awareness programme, Anshul was shocked to hear their real life stories and decided to base his documentary on Ganesh, Babloo and Ijaz -- the characters in the film.
''Here was a golden opportunity to showcase their lives and hopefully bring a change for the better through love,'' reveals Anshul.
"I believe love can change lives and decided to make it the theme for my documentary, he says.
Once the script was ready, shooting began on March 6 and was completed on March 7. The scenes were shot at Snehasadan and St Dominic Savio boys home. The 16-minute documentary was shot on Sony camera.
On the occasion, Anshul said Love Changes Everything is a message that love can cure everything. He said he would like to make another film on a similar sensitive issue and call it Love Changes Everything- part two.
''I would like to thank God, my school authorities, my parents for making me such a good child and specially my sister, who despite having her Std X board exams helped me with the film,'' he said.
