At a time when Karnataka is among the top five States with 15,000 manual scavengers in rural areas, B.M. Giriraj’s Amaravathi on the life of manual scavengers bagged three honours at the Karnataka State Film Awards for 2016 on Tuesday.
Besides being adjudged first best film, Achyuth Kumar bagged the best actor award for essaying the lead role in Amaravathi, and Mr. Giriraj won the best dialogue award. Shruthi Hariharan won best female lead for her brilliant performance in Beautiful Manasugalu directed by Jayatheertha.
Chetan Mundadi’s Tulu film Madipu bagged the best Karnataka regional film award. The film had bagged the best feature film award in sub-regional languages at the National Film Awards.
Railway Children by Prithvi Konanur received the honours of the second best film. K. Manohar was adjudged best child artiste for Railway Children. He recently won the best child actor award at the National Film Awards.
Kirik Party , which created a record of sorts in Kannada cinema history in terms of box-office collection, won the best entertaining film award. Rama Rama Re bagged the best award for debutante director D. Satyaprakash.
Moodla Seemeyali by K. Shivarudraiah, a film about trafficking of women in parts of Karnataka, was selected special film on social concern. Shashidhara Adapa won the best art direction award for his work in Uppina Kagada, directed by B. Suresh.
Selection committee
The selection committee seems to have leaned towards independent film-makers this time. Kirik Party, Amaravathi , Railway Children , Antarjala (third best film), Moodla Seemeyali , Jeer Jimbe (best children’s film), and Rama Rama Re were made by independent film-makers.
Award ceremony
The committee watched over 124 films in 40 days before making the selection. The awards will be conferred on the recipients on April 24, the birthday of Kannada cinema icon Dr. Rajkumar.
