Thai Saheb bags national award for best film

NEW DELHI, May 9: Kannada film Thai Saheb by Girish Kasaravalli has won the Swarna Kamal for the best feature film while Malayali director J...

NEW DELHI, May 9: Kannada film Thai Saheb by Girish Kasaravalli has won the Swarna Kamal for the best feature film while Malayali director Jayaraaj was adjudged the best director for Kaliyattam in the 45th national film awards announced today. Actors Balachandra Menon (Samaantharangal) and Suresh Gopi (Kaliyattam) shared the best actor award, while Indrani Halder and Rituparna Sengupta together won the best actress award for their performances in Bengali film Dahan. This is perhaps the first time in the history of national film awards that there has been a tie in both the categories.

Malayalam film Boothakannadi directed by Lohitha Das received the Indira Gandhi award for best debut film of a director.

Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai was selected as the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. Karishma Kapoor got the best supporting actress award for her performance in the film. The Nargis Dutt award for best feature film on national integrationhas gone to J P Dutta’s Border. The best film and best director award includes a cash prize of Rs 50,000 each. The best popular film receives Rs 40,000 and the Nargis Dutt award carries Rs 30,000.

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Announcing the awards, actress B Saroja Devi, chairperson of the 13-member feature film jury, said the selection was made from among 92 feature films in various Indian languages. The jury selected 28 entries for various awards to be given later this year.

The special jury award goes to actress Jayamala for her performance in Thai saheb. The best art direction award was bagged by Ramesh Desai.

M M Keeravani won the best music direction award for the classical score in the Telugu film Annamayya. The jury made a special mention of Nagarjuna’s performance in the film.

Javed Akhtar has been nominated for the best lyrics award for his “evocative wordings” in Border. The award for the best male playback singer went to Hariharan for Mere Dushman, Mere Bhai in Border while thebest female playback singer award has been given to Chitra for Payalen chun-mun chun-mun in Virasat.

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Govind Nihalani’s Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa bagged the award for best feature film in Hindi and Dahan for the best in Bengali.

The best supporting actor award has been given to Prakash Raj for the Tamil film Iruvar whose cinematographer Santosh Sivan won the award for the best cinematography.

Ramayanam, directed by Gunasekhar, has been adjudged best children’s film, and Dhanraj the best child artiste for his portrayal of a disabled person in Dhanna.