Simha’s film was chosen for the honour for its “imaginative portrayal of a magic world that exists in the minds of children,” the jury chaired by noted Malayalam filmmaker Shaji N Karun said.
“Vimukthi” by P Sheshadri won the Rajat Kamal for the Best Film in Kannada award for “exploring different dimensions of family ties” while “Gaggara” by Shivadhwaj Shetty won the Rajat Kamal for the Best Tulu film in the “best feature film in each of the languages other than those specified in Schedule VIII of the Constitution” category for “its attempt to preserve traditional folk forms”.
The awards for films made during 2008 saw Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s urban relationship tale “Antaheen”, starring Rahul Bose, Radhika Apte, Aparna Sen and Sharmila Tagore, also walk away with awards for Best Cinematography (Avik Mukhopadhyay) and Best Lyrics (Anindya Bannerjee & Chandranil Bhattacharya).
The Best Dire
ctor’s Swarna Kamal went to Bala for his Tamil film “Naan Kadavul”, while the prestigious Nargis Dutt Award for National Integration went to Assamese film “Aai Kot Nai” by Manju Borah, while the Indira Gandhi Award for the Best First Feature Film of a Director went to “A Wednesday” by Neeraj Pandey.
The Best Film providing Wholesome Entertainment award went to Dibakar Banerjee’s ‘Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye!’
Shreya Ghoshal won the Best Female Playback Singer award for both ‘Antaheen’ and ‘Jogva’ (Marathi), with the latter film also walking away with the Best Actor Award (Upendra Limaye), Best Male Playback Singer award (Hariharan) and Best Music award (Ajay-Atul). Besides, the film also won the award for Best Film on Social Issues.
The other major winners are Kangana Ranaut (Best Supporting Actress for ‘Fashion’), Arjun Rampal (Best Supporting Actor for ‘Rock On’), A Sreekar Prasad (Best editing for ‘Firaaq’), Gautam Sen (Best Art Direction for ‘Firaaq’), ‘Little Zizou’ (Best Film on Family Values) and Master Shams Patel (Best Child Artist for ‘Thanks Maa’).
Malayalam film ‘Bioscope’ by K M Madhusudhanan won a Special Jury Award, while Neeta Lulla got the Best Costume Designer award and Chinni and Rekha Prakash got the Best Choreographer award for their work in ‘Jodhaa Akbar’.
The Best Non-Feature Film award went to Haobam Paban Kumar’s “courageous depiction of the non-violent resistance of the people of Manipur” in ‘AFSPA 1958’, while the best critics award was shared by Altaf Majid of Assam and R K Bidur Singh of Manipur. ‘Bollywood Melodies’ by Ganesh Anantharaman won the Best Book on Cinema award. The Best First Non-Feature Film of a Director award went to Vinoo Choliparambil for ‘Vitthal’.