Andhra Pradesh government has announced NTR National Film Award to renowned singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam for the year 2012 and to Hindi Film actor and the yesteryear dream girl Hema Malini for the year 2013.
The NTR award carries a cash award of ₹5 lakh and a citation.
State government revived the presentation of four prestigious awards instituted in the name of eminent film personalities- NTR, B.N. Reddy, Nagireddy and Chakrapani (all national ) and Raghupathi Venkaiah Film award after a gap of five years.
Film director Singeetham Srinivasa Rao won the B.N. Reddy National Film Award for the year 2012. The other two awards — Nagireddy and Chakrapani National Film award went to film producer Daggupati Suresh and Raghupathi Venkaiah Film award to film director Kodi Rama Krishna for the year 2012.
For the year 2013, NTR National Film Award was conferred on Hema Malini, B.N. Reddy National Film award to Director Kodanda Remireddy, Nagireddy and Chakrapani National Film award to producer Dil Raju and Raghupathi Venkaiah film award to actor Vanisree.
Addressing the media, Mr. Murali Mohan and Mr. Balakrishna said the committee submitted the list of awardees for the two years to the Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and he gave his approval 10 days ago but due care was taken not to leak the information.
They said the awards could not be announced since 2012 because of disturbing situation prevailing due to bifurcation. After 2014, the AP government was grappling with bifurcation related issues and did not have a capital of its own. Finally Chief Minister said the backlog of awards for the last five years from 2012 to 2016 should be cleared.
‘No discrimination’
Mr. Murali Mohan said they did not want to discriminate between Telugu people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as the film industry was one. The committee as well as awardees belonged to both the States.
Committees would be soon constituted for selection of awardees for 2014, 2015 and 2016 for Nandi awards for film, theatre, Television and NTR national awards and the process would be completed in two months.
The awards for all the five years would be presented at a grand function to be held over two days in October or November.
The venue is yet to be decided.
The year 2012 also marked the golden jubilee of Nandi awards and the State government was keen on celebrating the event in a befitting manner.
