South Filmfare Awards excelled South Indian Cinema

Televisionpoint.com Team
The stars above could not compete with the dazzle on stage at the Gachibowli Stadium for the 52nd South Filmfare Awards function on Saturday held in Hyderabad. Despite the lashing rain, the who’s who of South Indian cinema assembled in a glittering array to make the occasion befitting the most prestigious film awards in the South.

The three-hour extravaganza, compered by Shriya Reddy and Yudhishtir, got going with a pulsating opener by Charmi, and a series of energetic routines by Devisree Prasad, Sada, Kamalinee, Blaaze and Ragasya.

This year, Filmfare decided to give lifetime achievement awards to two personalities on whose contribution there would be complete consensus. The first was presented to yesteryear actress K R Vijaya who epitomised Indian womanhood in countless movies. She was given the award by director K Vishwanath. The second was given to film-maker-media baron Ch Ramoji Rao for his unsurpassed contribution to Telugu cinema. He received the award from Bollywood director Ramesh Sippy amid a standing ovation from the audience.

Telugu Megastar Chiranjeevi received his seventh Filmfare award from Bollywood diva Rekha for his performance in Shankar Dada MBBS and immediately announced he wanted more. Among the other awardees were singer Chitra, who received her first Filmfare award for the song 'Nuvvasthanate ne vaddantana' from Varsham. Varsham also fetched the best cinematography award for Gopal Reddy. The best newcomer award went to Ravi Krishna for his performance in 7/G Rainbow Colony while Raju Sundaram was presented the best choreography award for his dances in the Tamil movie Gilli.

The show had its moment of poignance when it paused to pay tribute to actress Soundarya, who died in an helicopter accident last year. The tribute by Ramya, a performance of numbers made famous by Soundarya, was topped with a posthumous best actress award for her role in the Kannada film Apthamitra. The late actress’ mother received the award and was overwhelmed by tears as the audience rose in a heartwarming ovation.

In the awards for Kannada language films, Apthamitra won all the major awards including for best film, director, actor and actress. After receiving the best film award, producer of Apthamithra dedicated the award to his lead star, Soundarya. With Hero Honda as the presenting sponsors, the show was organised by TIML-360 Degrees. Partners in the show were Sun Network, Cafe Coffee Day.

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