Director Ram Madhvani was surprised but expected Sonam Kapoor to win accolades for 'Neerja'

Sonam Kapoor has won her first award for Neerja. She picked up Best Actress award for Ram Madhvani's debut film at the Indian Film Festival, Melbourne in Australia and the director is thrilled. Madhvani says, "I was surprised to hear that she won the award but at the same time I was expecting it too. It's like unpredictable yet predictable. There was tough competition too in Melbourne so there's a good feeling in your heart about it. I am very proud of Sonam. She's a fine actress and deserved this. People think it will become a cult classic but we can only know that in the next five years. I hope for Sonam's case it becomes that as she has worked really hard for this film. She's a very honest and natural actress. There are two schools of acting - to show and to be. Sonam is there in the moment, she is Neerja."

Did he expect so much love and appreciation when he made the film? "We knew what we wanted to make but we didn't know what we had made until the people told us. It's really the people who showed us how much they loved us but frankly, so much love is something is beyond what we expected. There are four different barometers for success – personal, public, commercial success and critical. I think there's a fifth one too. I also define success through a value system which was proved in Neerja and which has sustained. That's very rare to achieve."