BANGALORE: Actors Puneeth Rajkumar and Umashree walked away with the best actor and best actress awards, while Girish Kasaravalli’s ‘Gulabi Talkies’ has been adjudged as the best film in the State film awards for 2007-08.
Information Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, while announcing the awards on Sunday, said that the date and place of the award function would be announced soon. According to sources, the award ceremony is likely to be held in Shimoga, the home town of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.
Actor Vishnuvardhan was given the prestigious Dr Rajkumar award for his three decade long service to the Kannada film industry, while noted producer Parvathamma Rajkumar was honoured with a lifetime achievement award for her contribution to the industry as a producer, distributor and exhibitor.
‘Moggina Jade’, directed by Ramdas Naidu, bagged the second best film and Nagatihalli Chandrashekhar’s ‘Mataad Mataad Mallige’ got the third best film award.
While Puneeth got the best actor award for his film ‘Milana’, Umashree was adjudged the best actress for her performance in ‘Gulabi Talkies.’ T he prestigious Puttanna Kanagal award has been awarded to veteran director Renuka Sharma. Tulu film ‘Birse’ got the best regional language film award.
THE DISGRUNTLED
However, the selection of awards was not devoid of controversies this time as well. Agni Sridhar, who got the best dialogue writer award for his film “Aa Dinagalu”, has rejected the award. He said that the his film should have received the best film award and the director of the film, Chetan, should have been named as the best director. He has accused the selection committee of being partial to some ‘established’ interests in the industry.
He has threatened to make a film on the backdoor manoeuvering that happens during the selection of the awards. K Manju, producer of ‘Mataad Mataad Mallige’, which bagged the third best film award, is also disappointed.
He said that his film would have got the first prize if the selection was done purely on merit.