IFFM 2026 Winners: Dulquer Salmaan Wins Best Actor for Kaantha, Rishab Shetty Takes Best Director

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2026 brought together films and performances from across Indian cinema, but two names emerged prominently from its main film categories: Dulquer Salmaan and Rishab Shetty.

At the 17th edition of IFFM, Dulquer was named Best Actor for his performance in Kaantha, while Rishab won Best Director for Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1. Rishab also received the separate Leadership in Cinema Award, making him one of the evening's multiple honourees. Meanwhile, the Best Film award went to the Malayalam superhero film Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra.

The results underline an interesting feature of the 2026 awards: major recognition was spread across Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi and streaming productions rather than being concentrated around a single film or industry.

Dulquer Salmaan wins Best Actor for Kaantha

Dulquer Salmaan received the festival's Best Actor award for Kaantha, the 2025 Tamil period drama directed by Selvamani Selvaraj.

The film's official website identifies Dulquer as Chandran, an established film star whose relationship with filmmaker Ayya becomes increasingly strained against the backdrop of the 1950s Madras film industry. Dulquer also served as one of the film's producers alongside Rana Daggubati. The production was mounted by Spirit Media and Wayfarer Films.

Netflix, where the film is now available, describes Kaantha as a drama centred on a conflict between a director and his actor-protégé as creative control over a film becomes increasingly personal. The principal cast also includes Bhagyashri Borse, Samuthirakani and Rana Daggubati.

Dulquer's IFFM victory is therefore not simply another celebrity honour attached to his name. The performance comes from a film built heavily around actor-director rivalry, ego and changing power dynamics material that asks him to carry a more psychologically volatile character than the easy-going romantic roles often associated with parts of his earlier career.

Rishab Shetty wins Best Director and a second major honour

Rishab Shetty was named Best Director for Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1, the Hombale Films production he both wrote, directed and headlined.

Hombale Films' official promotional material credits Rishab as writer-director and lead actor, with Rukmini Vasanth, Gulshan Devaiah and Jayaram among the cast. Vijay Kiragandur produced the film under the Hombale Films banner. It opened theatrically on October 2, 2025.

IFFM additionally presented Rishab with its Leadership in Cinema Award, recognising his wider work as a filmmaker whose stories draw heavily from regional culture and folklore.

Speaking after receiving the honours, Rishab reflected on the risk involved in making Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1. He described the film as difficult to execute and credited the spiritual force at the centre of the project with helping the team complete it.

The double recognition matters because one award concerned a specific directorial achievement, while the second addressed his broader filmmaking identity. They should not be treated as duplicate prizes for the same category.

Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra takes Best Film

While Dulquer won for Kaantha, another project connected to his production company also had a significant evening.

Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra was named Best Film at IFFM 2026. The film was written and directed by Dominic Arun and produced by Wayfarer Films. Its principal cast includes Kalyani Priyadarshan, Naslen and Sandy Master, with Dulquer appearing in the wider ensemble.

JioHotstar's official trailer credits Dominic Arun as writer-director and Wayfarer Films as producer. The streaming platform also positions the film as the opening chapter of a larger superhero-fantasy world.

That creates an unusual connection across the night's major awards: Dulquer was recognised as an actor for one production while a separate film from his Wayfarer Films banner secured the festival's top film honour.

Kirti Kulhari, Vijay Varma and Rasika Dugal among other winners

The awards extended well beyond Dulquer and Rishab.

Kirti Kulhari was named Best Actress for Full Plate, while the streaming categories went to Vijay Varma for Matka King and Rasika Dugal for Delhi Crime 3. Freedom At Midnight Season 2 was named Best Series.

Rima Das' Not a Hero received Best Indie Film, Shahrbanoo Sadat's No Good Men was named Best Film from the Subcontinent, and Madhushree Dutta's Flying Tigers won Best Documentary Film. The People's Choice Award went to Saiyaara, while Sitaare Zameen Par received the Equality in Cinema Award.

The festival also presented special career honours. Rekha received the Excellence in Cinema Award, Pankaj Tripathi was named Artist of Distinction, and Rani Mukerji received special recognition marking 30 years of her film career.

IFFM 2026 placed regional cinema at the centre of its biggest awards

One of the strongest editorial takeaways from the results is the range of languages and industries represented at the top of the list.

The Best Film honour went to a Malayalam production, Best Actor to Dulquer for a Tamil-language film, and Best Director to Rishab for a Kannada film. Independent, Hindi-language and streaming projects were simultaneously recognised in their respective categories.

That distribution is significant because IFFM's awards increasingly function less as a showcase centred on one dominant Indian film industry and more as an international platform where mainstream, regional, independent and streaming work compete within the same broader celebration of Indian and South Asian storytelling.

The Celebrity Hour Take

Dulquer Salmaan and Rishab Shetty's wins represent two very different routes to wider recognition.

Dulquer's Best Actor award highlights his continued movement between industries and languages, with Kaantha placing him inside a performance-heavy period drama rather than a conventional star vehicle.

Rishab's double honour reflects something broader. Kantara has made regional folklore and culturally specific storytelling central to his filmmaking identity, and the Leadership in Cinema award explicitly acknowledges that larger trajectory rather than only the success of one film.

The presence of Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra as Best Film adds another layer. Together, the major winners show how increasingly difficult it is to describe contemporary Indian cinema through a simple Bollywood-versus-regional-cinema divide. At international festivals such as IFFM, those boundaries are becoming considerably less useful.

Sources & Verification

This report was researched using the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2026 winners information published through festival organiser Mind Blowing Films, corroborating coverage from Cinema Express, official promotional material from Hombale Films for Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1, the official Kaantha website, Netflix's listing for Kaantha, and JioHotstar's official credits for Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra. The central awards claims Dulquer Salmaan winning Best Actor, Rishab Shetty winning Best Director and Leadership in Cinema, and Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra winning Best Film were independently cross-checked across multiple sources.