26 films nominated for V Shantaram awards

mumbai: twenty-six films, including mrugajal (marathi), refugee (hindi), kochu kochu santoshangal (malayalam) and dr bababasaheb ambedkar (english), have been nominated for the v shantaram awards, scheduled to be presented on november 18, the 100th birth anniversary of the film doyen. "the films have been nominated from over 100 entries by a nine-member jury, comprising ashutosh gowarikar, dr p l dash, madhvi mukherji, monhini varde, rukmagadan, madhura jasraj, kiran shantaram and chairman swapan ghosh," according to kiran shantaram, chairman of the v shantaram foundation.the nominations were for he years, 1997-1998, 1998-99, 99-2000 and 2000-2001, he added. explaining the long gap between the last award and the present one, shantaram said the v shantaram foundation had proposed several amendments in the rules and regulations of the contest since its initial conception in 1975. "the amendments had to be legally cleared, which took a considerable amount of time," he added. speaking on the occasion, director ashutosh gowarikar said it was the strength of the message and entertainment and not the film's box-office collections or presence of stars that were the deciding factors for nomination of movies for the awards. "the realistic and fantasy films were put in the same class for viewing," he said. rahul shantaram, chairperson, rajkamal events, also announced the grand cultural fiesta that would be launched on november 18 to commemorate the centenary birth celebration of his grandfather. utsab (bengali), kallu kondoru pennu (malyalam), shantham (malyalam), mohabbatein (hindi), were among those selected in the category of films released in the year 2000. kaho na pyar hai (hindi), taal (hindi), sarfarosh (hindi), laadoo (haryanvi) and veendum chila veetukaryangal (malyalam) have been chosen in the category of films released in the year 1999. the much acclaimed film hhazar chaurasi ki ma (hindi), ente swantam janakikutty (malayalam), kuch kuch hota hai (hindi), thai saheba (kannada), satwapariksha (marathi) and hoomale (kannada) feature in the 1998 category. six films -- bhootakkannadi (malyalam), america, america (kannada), border (hindi), dil to pagal hai (hindi), pardes (hindi), sarkaranama (marathi) feature in the films nominated for the year 1997. this year the v shantaram awards also include additional categories of best male and female artistes, kiran said, adding that next year a category for technical excellence would also be included as suggested by the jury. efforts would also be made to screen the nominated films for the media from next year, he added.