Sruthi Hariharan is best actress; Kirik Party is entertaining film

The 2016 Karnataka State film awards announced on Tuesday saw social issue-based films hogging the list. The top three films are about the problems of civic workers, runaway kids and groundwater. The best debut director award went to

Sathya Prakash

, for a film on an escaped death convict and a hangman. Of the 120-plus films that were in contention for the 2016 awards, a whopping 42 films had first-time directors, and thus marking a paradigm shift in its approach and acceptance.

Films that won national awards two days ago have also won awards in the state including Railway Children and Tulu film Madipu. Ecstatic over the recognition, Prithvi Konanur, techie-turned-director of Railway Children, said, “We are thankful to the jury for choosing ours as the second best film. I think all our hard efforts have yielded the desired results.“

Prithvi and his team made the movie in two phases, by way of crowdfunding. Even though Railway Children could not make it to the Bengaluru International Film Festival, it received accolades at the Mumbai Festival and subsequently won the national award. The best child actor Master Manohar K was chosen out of hundreds of kids from 30 schools in Bengaluru North who were auditioned for the role.Allama, that won two national awards, failed to make it to the state winners' list.

Achyuth Kumar, who won the best actor award for his lead role in `Amaravathi' which also won the best movie award, said, “More than winning the award, the actual issues of civic workers have come to the foreground. In fact, director Giriraj had given me the script five years ago and it took so long to find a producer who was willing even to consider a film about civic workers. Someone asked me if I had prepared for the role. I told them that I am living with civic workers since I was born.Not just me, but everyone in society.“

D Sathya Prakash, who won the best debutant director award for Rama Rama Re, said, “The writing took two years and the filming four. Even if a single person had given up, the film would not have been made. It is a road film, but the journey is more life-changing for all of us. None of us had imagined about the film running for 100 days or winning an award. Our only concern was to complete the film and somehow release it.“

HERE IS THE FULL AWARDS LIST
First Best Film: Amaravathi
Second Best Film: Railway Children
Third Best Film: Antarjala
Social Concern Film: Mudla Seemeyalli
Popular Entertaining Film:

Kirik Party

Best Children's Film: Jeer Jimbe
Best Debutant Director: D Satyaprakash for Rama Rama Re
Best Regional Film: Madipu (Tulu)
Best Actor (male): Achyuth Kumar for Amaravathi
Best Actor (female): Sruthi Hariharan for Beautiful Manasugalu
Best Supporting Actor (male): Naveen D Padil for Kudla Cafe (Tulu)
Best Supporting Actor (female): Akshata Pandavpura for Palata
Best Story: Nandita Yadav for Raju Yedegebidda Akshara
Best Screenplay: Arvind Shastry for

Kahi

Best Dialogue: BM Giriraj for Amaravathi
Best Cinematography: Shekar Chandra for Mungaru Male 2
Best Music Director: Charan Raj for Jeer Jimbe
Best Editing: C Ravichandran for Mummy
Best Child Actor (male): Master Manohar for Railway Children
Best Child Actor (female): Baby Sirivanalli for Jeer Jimbe, Baby Revathy for Beti
Best Art Director: Shashidhar Adappa for Uppina Kagada
Best Lyricist: Karthik Saragur for Jeer Jimbe
Best Playback Singer (male): Vijay Prakash for Beautiful Manasugalu
Best Playback Singer (female): Sangeeta Ravindranath for Jalwa
Special Jury Award
Best Costume: Chinmayee for Santheyalli Nintha Kabira
Best Production Controller: KV Manjaiah for Mungaru Male 2