State Awards in another controversy?

The State Awards seems to be embroiled in controversy for a long time now. Earlier, the awards were cancelled when actress Priya Hassan and filmmaker Basant Kumar Patil moved to court protesting against it. Priya had told us at that time, “I am an artist and I am not against any artist in the industry, including Upendra who is most affected by this decision as he will have to return the state award. It is the audience and the committee that represents them that decide who the award winners are, not the people involved with the making of the films. I took up this cause because I found that the committee had not flowed rules, and that could affect any other deserving candidate who may have stood a chance to win an award instead.” Now, it is music director and producer Renu Kumar has filed a petition at Karnataka High Courst recently to stop the State Awards being held at Dharwad. His film, Shabdhamani, which was also his debut in direction had won adjusted the third best film by the Bharathi Vishnuvardhan committee. The High Court cancelled the awards and also ordered the Government to set up a new committee which in turn appointed a committee to be headed by veteran director, SK Bhagawan which didn’t select Renu’s film in any category.