Tags:
Journalism of Courage
CHENNAI, JULY 31: Heartbeat of the Tamil masses, Karthik and evergreen heroine, Roja, walked off with the Best Actor and the Best Actress trophies in the Ujala Cinema Express awards presented on Friday.
The film in which they played memorable roles, Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen was adjudged the Best Film of the year.
A glittering galaxy of beautiful people watched South India’s most coveted film awards being presented by chief guest Jaya Bachchan and other dignitaries. Interspersed with cultural programmes the highlight of the award ceremony was the use of pyrotechnics a play of multi-coloured lights.The intricate patterns woven by the multi-coloured beams held a packed Nehru stadium spellbound. A pictorial rendering of the Titanic hit My heart will go on… complete with the ship and the sea and the hair blowing in sea breeze stole the show, while cultural programmes were presented by dancers from the tinsel town. As waves of light washed over the audience, `Swingers’ from Mumbai performed. Doordarshantook the spectacular show across the nation in live coverage.
It was the 19th Ujala Cinema Express awards. While the stars got the trophy, winners of a contest held by the Cinema Express were given Ujala gold coins.Long forgotten friendship surfaced at the awards ceremony. Sanjay Kapoor, brother of Anil Kapoor, who came on to the stage with Hindi actress Ayesha Julka to give away the awards for best character actress to Kushbu said that years ago, Kushboo was chosen to play the lead with him in his first film. However, it did not materialise.
Aayesha Julkha too received a warm embrace from the actress, who is one of the first imports from Bollywood.
Organisers of the function, Kalpana and Manoj Kumar Sonthalia of Express Publications (Madurai) Limited, and N T Ramachandran of Jyothi Laboratories, manufacturers of Ujala, joined Jaya Bachchan in lighting the Kuthuvilakku. The show was compered by Tamil film star Radhika.
In addition to the big and the famous from the South Indian film industry, formerMiss Universe Sushmita Sen, Prem Chopra, Sanjay Kapoor, singers Kavitha Krishnamurthi and Udit Narayan represented the North Indian filmdom.
