The Telugu film industry is in celebration mode after the 64th National Film Awards were announced on Friday. Director Satish Vegesna’s Sathamanam Bhavathi was awarded the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Debut director Tharun Bhascker’s Pellichupulu was awarded the Best Feature Film in Telugu. The film also won the award for best dialogues. Choreographer Raju Sundaram won the Best Choreography Award for his work in Janatha Garage .
The film that starred Prakash Raj, Jayasudha, Sharwanand and Anupama Parameshwaran, was pitched as an ideal Sankranti festival release in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Though the film was released in theatres this year, it was submitted for the awards in 2016. Satish, a former journalist, wrote the story of this film as a short story 16 years ago when he had moved to Hyderabad from Tanuku.
In an earlier interview with The Hindu , he had said if he couldn’t make it to his village during Sankranti or Dasara, he’d feel lost without the festive spirit. In Sathamanam Bhavathi , he emphasises the importance of children visiting their home and aged parents in villages at least for festivals and strengthen their family bonds.
Tharun Bhascker’s Pellichupulu was a delightful, slice-of-life film in which a sharp-thinking, determined entrepreneurial young woman crosses paths with a lazy youngster who needs that extra push to work towards his dream of becoming a chef.
The four-award haul is a reason to cheer as it isn’t often that Telugu films get recognised at the national level. The exception, in the recent years, was when Baahubali- The Beginning grabbed eyeballs and awards in 2016. It won the awards for Best Feature Film and in the Special Effects category in 2016. In the same year, Krish Jagarlamudi’s Kanche won the award for Best Feature Film in Telugu.
This year, Krish Jagarlamudi was part of the jury. Apart from the four awards bagged by Telugu films, Hyderabad-based filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dhanak won the award for Best Children’s Film. Dhanak narrates a heart-warming story of Chotu, a blind boy, and his sister Pari, traversing the arid regions of Rajasthan in the hope of meeting Shah Rukh Khan and finding a solution to Chotu’s condition.
The Tamil science fiction thriller 24 , starring Suriya in three roles, won the award for Best Production Design and Best Cinematography. The movie was dubbed in Telugu and was widely received.
