Winners sore Prez didn’t hand over many film awards

Chennai/New Delhi: Yesudas, the best male playback singer, had the honour of receiving his National Award from President Ram Nath Kovind, but his counterpart in the women’s category, Shashaa Tirupati, had to receive her award from Union ministers Smriti Irani and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on Thursday. The 65th National Award held at Vigyan Bhavan turned out to be a confusing affair as the President broke a 65-year-old tradition and attended only the last hour of the ceremony.
Best music director A R Rahman was among the 11 out of 137 awardees chosen to receive the National Award from the President. Speaking to TOI from Delhi, first-time National Award winner Shashaa said, “In the letter we received from the organisers, we were told that the President will be handing out the awards. As it is possibly an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it was integral for me to receive the award from the President.”
Shashaa won the award for the song ‘Vaan Varuvaan’, composed by A R Rahman for the film ‘Kaatru Veliyidai’. Shashaa said, “It was heartening for me to see that my mentor Rahman received the award from the President.” Rahman bagged awards for best music director (songs) and best music director (background score). Shasha added, “I was still happy to get the award from Smriti Irani. I have great regard for her as a public figure.”
Hours before the award ceremony, about 70 awardees told the organisers, in a letter, that they did not want to be part of the ceremony. Director of ‘To Let’ — adjudged the best regional film (Tamil) — Ra Chezhian and his wife Prema Chezhian, the producer of the film, were among the signatories of the letter. However, the Chezhians ended up attending the event like many other signatories.
Confusion prevailed on Thursday morning at Ashoka Hotel where all the awardees were put up. Chezhian said, “At breakfast, several of us gathered together to sign a letter. It was meant to be a request letter seeking the participation of the President. By afternoon, when I came back to the hotel after an interview, many had assembled outside to board the buses that would take us to the venue. On reaching the venue, we found that seats belonging to 30-40 awardees were vacant.”