After winning accolades in Canada, the New Delhi-set film Amal from Toronto director Richie Mehta has been named the best independent film of 2007 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

"This is a great honour," Mehta, who is based in Miss., Ont., said in a release Monday of the prize he received on the weekend.

Director Richie Mehta, right, directs actor Naseeruddin Shah for a scene in the film Amal.
(Poor Man's Productions/Seville Pictures)

"We made this film because I wanted to tell this story to audiences all over the world. To have achieved that, and now be recognized outside of Canada by a festival as highly respected as Santa Barbara, is thrilling."

Filmed in New Delhi, Amal explores contemporary life in India through a portrait of a poor but selfless rickshaw driver whose simple act of kindness towards a seemingly homeless man sets off powerful ripples in the community.

Mehta adapted the screenplay for the Hindi- and English-language film from his brother Shaun's short story Amal: The Autorickshaw Wallah.

Initially a short film produced in 2004, Amal was redeveloped into a feature-length movie after Mehta entered it in — and won — the Telefilm Pitch This! competition at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.

The feature-length version was subsequently screened at the 2007 edition of TIFF.

The film won the audience award at the Whistler Film Festival and the Bahamas International Film Festival and was named, in December, among the Toronto International Film Festival Group's tally of the best Canadian movies of the past year.

With files from the Canadian Press