Kannada films scooped 11 awards at the 66th National Film Awards, which were dominated by Bollywood as mainstream Hindi films walked away with a total of 13 awards.
‘Nathicharami’ was a big winner, as film bagged a slew of awards, including the best Kannada film award.
Directed by Manjunatha S and produced by Tejaswini Enterprises, the film was also honoured with the best female playback singer award, which went to Bindhu Malini for ‘Maayavi Manave’ song and the best lyrics award, which was bagged by Manjunatha S for the same song.
Nagendra K Ujjani bagged the best editing award for the same film. Actress Sruthi Hariharan received a special mention from the jury for her “complex and nuanced” portrayal of a new age Indian woman in the film.
‘Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shale Kasargodu’ received the best children’s film award.
The Nargis Dutt Award for the Best Feature Film on National Integration went to Kannada film ‘Ondalla Eradalla’.
PV Rohith got the best child artist award for ‘Ondalla Eradalla’.
He will share the award with Sameep Singh, Talha Arshad Reshi, Shrinivas Pokale, who bagged the award for their portrayals in Punjabi film ‘Harjeeta’, Urdu film ‘Hamid’ and Marathi film ‘Naal’ respectively. ‘KGF’ bagged two national awards for best action, which went to Vikram More and Anbu Ariv.
Best male playback singer award went to Arijit Singh for his song ‘Binte dil misriya mein..’ in ‘Padmaavat’.
Interestingly, Hindi film ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’ was considered by the jury for the national award for the year 2018 even though the film was released this year. The film bagged three national awards, with director Aditya Dhar walking away with the award for best direction.
Vicky Kaushal, who played the lead role of a military officer in ‘Uri’, bagged the best actor award. He will share the award with actor Ayushmann Khurrana of ‘Andhadhun’, which bagged best Hindi film award.
Keerthy Suresh bagged the best actress award for her role in Telugu film ‘Mahanati’.
Gujarati film “Hellaro” bagged the best film honour.