Some of the biggest names in the film industry on Saturday swore that cinema was the biggest unifier of them all at a star-studded evening here. The glittering function also showcased the theme of ‘100 years of India Cinema’.
The occasion was the presentation of the TSR National Film Awards for the years 2011 and 2012 and among those who walked away with the Best Actor Awards were Nandamuri Balakrishna (‘Sri Rama Rajyam’-2011) and Akkineni Nagarjuna (‘Shirdi Sai-2012), while Tamanna (‘100% Love’-2011) and Anushka (‘Damarukam’-2012) picked up the awards for Best Actresses.
The directorial excellence of Srinu Vaitla (‘Dookudu’-2011) and Puri Jagannadh (‘Businessman’-2012) saw them getting the awards as Best Directors, while the Best Producer Awards were given away to Yelamanchili Saibaba (‘Sri Rama Rajyam’-2011) and Mahesh Reddy (‘Shridi Sai’-2012). For both the years Brahmanandam bagged the Best Comedian for ‘Dookudu’ (2011) and ‘Denikaina Reddy’ (2012).
The awards were given away together by the jury chairman T. Subbarami Reddy and others including Union Tourism Minister K. Chiranjeevi, thespian Akkineni Nageswara Rao, producer D. Rama Naidu, actor Mohan Babu, Shatrugan Sinha, singer P. Suseela, actress-turned-MLA Jayasudha, ‘Pinky’ Reddy.
Special Jury Awards-2011 were received by ‘Rajanna’ producer Nagarjuna, actress Sneha and child artiste Baby Annie, actress Charmee for ‘Mangala’, Ramki for ‘Gangaputrulu’ while for 2012 they were given to actor Manchu Vishnu ‘Denikaina Ready’, Nitin ‘Ishq’, Tanikella Bharani ‘Midhunam’, Khadir Babu ‘Onamalu’ and journalist Maddali Venkateswara Rao for his ‘Chaduvukovali’, a children’s film.
Lifetime Achievement Awards were given to ‘Rebel’ Star U.V. Krishnam Raju and veteran Kaikala Satyanarayana, while Mohan Babu got the ‘Best Actor of the Millennium’ and Rajendra Prasad the ‘Universal Performance Actor’ Award. K. Raghavendra Rao received the award for being the ‘Star Director of the Millennium’ and ‘Dil’ Raju for being the Best Producer.
Other awards given were ‘Empress of Indian Cinema’, for Sridevi and Boney Kapoor (Star Producer of the Millennium), Anil Kapoor (Bollywood Evergreen Hero), Shatrugan Sinha (Millennium Sensational Star), Zeenat Aman (Lifetime Achievement), Rani Mukherjee (Bollywood Ever Shining Star), Amisha Patel (Best Actress), Gulshan Grover (Best Performance), and Alka Yagnik (Best Playback Singer).
Hero Arjun got the Silver Screen Sensational Actor Award (Tamil), while Kishan Srikanth and Shobana got Special Jury Awards for Kannada and Malayalam, respectively.
