CHENNAI: The Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation’s Gollapudi Srinivas National Award — an award that has crowned several personalities like Subrata Sen, Aamir Khan and Anusha Rizvi for their debut directorial is back with its 19th edition. The award for 2015’s best debut director will be presented to Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan for his move Lens, a movie that talks about the effects social media has over people.
Announcing the news at a press meet, G V Subba Rao, managing trustee of the foundation, said, “From the time of the awards announcement in 1997, we have focused and identified promising talents around the country and these 18 years have been extremely beautiful. In the 19th edition, we are happy to give the award to Jayaprakash for his wonderful work in the movie Lens.”
The award is given in memory of Gollapudi Srinivas, the youngest son of Telugu film personality Gollapudi Maruthi Rao. Actor Suhasini who was part of the event, talked about her association with the foundation and said, “I’ve known Vasu (Srinivas) and what this family is doing to encourage new talent for so many years is brilliant. I am glad to be a part of this.” Jayaprakash’s film was chosen out of 33 films, which had been nominated from across the country by a panel consisting of film personalities like Srinivasa Rao, Vasanth and Rohini. “I see my brother in this young man today and it’s nice to see my extended family growing. All these young directors are like a family to me today,” said Subbarao.
Jayaprakash who was ecstatic over being chosen for the award said to CE, “I wanted to be an actor and take up direction later in my career for experimentation. But things happened in reverse for me. I wrote the script for Lens in 2012 inspired from a real life incident of Amanda Todd.” A former software engineer, Jayaprakash has played the role of Ajith’s friend in the film Yennai Arindhaal. “Now I have the confidence to direct more films, this award has given me a boost,” he added.
Kannada actor Shivarajkumar, directors Sudhi Mishra, Priyadarshan and Telugu actor Jayasudha Kapoor will be part of the awards function which is scheduled on August 12 at the Music Academy from 6.45pm. Actor Boman Hirani who will deliver the Gollapudi Srinivas memorial oration. Also, a presentation I Am an Actor, Your Honour directed by Suhasini will be staged as part of the function. “It’s based on a book by my father Charu Haasan. While most plays will have disclaimers about how the characters are a fragment of fiction we are going to give a claimer saying that everything is 100% real.” said Suhasini. Y Gee Mahendra and Madhuvanthi Arun will be part of the play among others. “This is the first time, I will be part of an English play and that’s challenging for me,” added Y Gee.
The screening of Lens will be held on August 11 at Le Magic Lantern from 6 45 pm