#TimesKAFTA: Celebrating film technicians

All roads led to the Radisson Blu Atria Bengaluru on Thursday night, as the who’s who of the Kannada film industry, led by Rocking Star Yash, gathered for a night of awards and merriment at the second edition of the Times Kannada Film Technical Awards (

KAFTA

). Up from last year’s 13 categories, this time around, the event, presented by

Hombale

Films in association with

Shankar Productions

, celebrated the works of

technicians

across 17 verticals.

Hemanth M Rao’s Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu was clearly in the spotlight, winning in four categories, including Best Lyrics for Rakshit Shetty, for Na Ee Sanje — a song that Hemanth says took the actor several months to write — as well as Best Story for the director himself, among others. Filmmaker Rishab Shetty’s maiden effort at directing stunts in Kirik Party got him the award for Best Action, as his film went on to be one of the big winners of the night with two more — Best Editor (Sachin) and Best Background Score (B Ajaneesh Loknath). Director SD Aravinda’s Last Bus tied with Kirik Party, notching up three awards, including one for Best Art Direction for the film's lead actor and Aravinda’s brother, Avinash Narasimharaju.

The respect that the industry’s actors have for the technical crew was crystal clear, as they not only spoke effusively about the value of a technician’s contribution to a film, but also stayed back to congratulate them and join them as they partied into the night to celebrate their wins.