Darshan and Nirmala Chennappa have been adjudged the best male and female actors, while N Sudarshan’s ‘Tallana’ and P Sheshadri’s ‘Bharat Stores’ have bagged the first and the second prize in the best film category in the 2012 State film awards announced on Monday.
‘Edegarike’ has been adjudged the third best film.
Directors M Bhaktavatsala and Chi Dattaraj have been selected for the prestigious Dr Rajkumar and Puttanna Kanagal awards respectively, while veteran actor Rajesh has been selected for the Dr Vishnuvardhan award.
The awards were announced by producer K C N Chandrashekar, who heads the selection committee set up by the government, in the presence of Information Minister Roshan Baig.
The award selection process has been riddled with controversies. The selection panel has picked noted Kannada writer Baragur Ramachandrappa’s ‘Angulimala’ as the best story, though the writer himself has denied that it is his original story.
Ramachandrappa has, as a result, rejected the award.
“It is not my original story. I have even left the column (best story column in the application form) blank. But the panel has gone ahead and selected it for the award,” he told Deccan Herald. However, Chandrashekar said that as the story was re-written for the film, it had been selected for the award.
Besides, the awards list were leaked to a section of media before its official announcement, drawing criticism from various quarters. Altogether 58 films were in the race for the awards. The panel had shortlisted 28 of them, before picking the best ones, Chandrashekar added.
Darshan-starrer super-hit movie ‘Sangolli Rayanna’ has bagged the best film award in the commercial entertainment category. It is his acting in the same movie that Darshan has got the best actor award. Nirmala Chennappa has been selected as the best female actor for her acting in ‘Tallana’.
Roshan Baig said the government would soon announce the date and place of the function wherein the awards will be given away. Another selection committee will be set up shortly for 2013 awards.
The three prestigious awards carry a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh and gold medal each. The first prize in the best film category carries Rs 1 lakh cash prize and the best actors get Rs 20,000 cash and a silver medal each.
Other awards are as follows: ‘Karanika Shishu’: social concern film; ‘Little Master’: best children’s film; ‘Alemari’: best debut film of a director award; Konchavaram: best regional language film; Karisubbu: best supporting actor; K Y Naraya- naswamy: best screenplay; M S Ramesh: best dialogues; Rakesh: best photography; Arjun Janya: best music director; P R Soundararaj: best editor; Master B Anil Kumar: best child actor (male); Baby Lepana: best child actor (female); Bheemeshappa: best art director; B H Mallikarjun: best lyric writer; Vasu Dixit: best playback singer (male); Anuradha Bhat: best playback singer (female); Ravivarma: jury’s special award.