University of Birmingham student wins Royal Television Society award

Bhulla Beghal, who graduated from the MA in Film and Television: Research and Production in 2016, won his second RTS Midlands Award in November, for a film that was made in collaboration with one of his peers from the MA for a collective of academic clients with an NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) grant.

Bhulla’s company, BlueBell Films, had 6 nominations for 3 films across 5 categories. It won the Craft Post Production award for Kiran, which raises awareness of the challenges and experiences that people go through when caring for a loved one with dementia. Daniel Coley, who also graduated from the MA in 2016, was the Producer for Kiran, while Bhulla wrote, directed and edited the film. Two students from the 2021-22 FTV cohort, Beth Schild and Di Meng, were runners on the production.

The RTS Midlands Awards Ceremony was held at the ICC in Birmingham city centre. The event celebrates screen content from across the region and in 2021, BlueBell Films won its first RTS Award for Best Short Form, however the ceremony was held virtually, meaning Bhulla and his team were unable to receive the prize in person. This year it was presented to him by Paralympian Ellie Simmonds.

Bhulla said:

‘Editing is one of my first loves, from when I would play with free software as an early teen, and here I am now winning a Royal Television Society Award for Post Production – amazing! To accept the award in person in front of the Midlands screen industry community, which includes many people that have championed me along the way, was a fantastic feeling. It was a point of pride to be a creative working alongside my MA FTV classmate and producer of the film, Daniel Coley’.

Huge congratulations to Bhulla, Dan and all of the BlueBell team!