THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: No more awards for best comedian. The best director and direct of the best film to get Rs2 lakh instead of the earlier Rsone lakh.
Going by the recommendations of the Adoor Gopalakrishnan panel, the government has brought in major modifications in the award manual for state film awards. The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday issued its nod for the modifications, including increasing the award amount. As per the decisions, the best director and director of the best film would get a cash award of Rs2 lakh while director of the second best film would receive Rs1.5 lakh.
The best actor and best actress would receive Rsone lakh each. Earlier, it was Rs75,000 only. The award categories of second best actor and second best actress have been renamed as best character actor and best character actress.Both of them will get cash prizes of Rs50,000 each. Director of best children’s film would get Rsone lakh. Producer of the second best film would get Rs1.5 lakh.However, the recommendation on increasing the cash prize for producer of the best film has not been considered. There will be separate awards for males and females in the best child artist category. The award amount would be Rs50,000. The cash prize for story, script writer, cinematographer, lyricists, music composer, background musician, male and female singers, editor, art director, sound mixing, processing lab/colourist, make-up man, dressing, male and female dubbing artists and choreographer has been fixed as Rs 50,000 each.
Director and producer of the best popular movie would get Rsone lakh each while the debut director would receive Rsone lakh.
Going by the Adoor panel recommendation, the government decided to institute a separate award for best script (adaptation) with a cash prize of Rs50,000. The proposals to institute new categories in live sound and sound design have also been accepted. They will receive an amount of Rs50,000.
One of the major proposals put forth by the panel was to do away with the award for best comedian. Also the category - best director of the children’s film - has also been omitted. In another major decision, two categories - short fiction and documentary film - have been excluded.
As per the new decision, entry for the awards should be submitted by the producer of the film.
Award jury to have more members
Foreseeing possibilities of award controversies, major amendments have been brought in the composition of the award jury also. Adoor panel recommendations on expanding the jury has been accepted. With this, the award jury will have 10 members instead of the earlier 8. As many as 80 pc of the jury members should be those who know Malayalam language. Of the 10 member jury, at least 3 should be film directors and 3 should be technicians. If the number of films submitted exceed 40, the jury chairman can form sub-committees for preliminary selection. The jury should see the films chosen for final selection once again. In another major decision, while submitting entries, an affidavit on stamp paper should be given stating that the jury’s decisions would not be questioned.