‘Soorarai Pottru’ Bags Five Awards

‘Soorarai Pottru’ bags five national film awards in India.

2D Entertainment/Sikhya Entertainment

Tamil star Suriya Sivakumar was in for a sweet surprise Friday evening when he bagged the national film award for his performance in the Tamil film, Soorarai Pottru. He shared the award with Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn who won his third national film award as the Indian Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur announced the 68th National Film Awards Friday evening. Devgn got the award for his performance for the historical drama Tanhaji The Unsung Warrior. The announcement came on the eve of Sivakumar’s birthday on Saturday.

Soorarai Pottru bagged a total of five awards – it won the award for the best feature film while Devgn’s Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior won the award for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. The Hindi film also bagged the award for best costume by Nachiket Barve and Mahesh Sherla. Aparna Balamurali bagged the award for the best actress for her performance in Soorarai Pottru. The Suriya-starrrer film also bagged the award for best screenplay by Shalini Usha Nair and Sudha Kongara.

Suriya responded to the development and tweeted, “The National Award gives me the motivation to work harder and walk my talk… and give you all good films, now & always. My heartfelt thanks for all the love and good wishes that has reached us and enriched our lives so far… We are ecstatic with the Five National awards for Soorari Pottru. The overwhelming reception for our films, which was released directly on OTT during a pandemic, has made our eyes well up in joy.” The film is inspired by the life of Air Deccan founder Captain GR Gopinath.

The award for the best director went to Sachidanandan KR for his Malayalam film AK Ayyappanum Koshiyum, posthumously. Biju Menon was awarded as the best supporting actor for the Malayalam film AK Ayyappanum Koshiyum while Tamil star Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli won the award for best supporting actress for Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum.

Manoj Muntashir bagged the award for best lyrics for the sports biopic, Saina which featured Parineeti Chopra in the lead role. Rajasekhar , Mafia Sasi & Supreme Sunder bagged the best stunt choreography award for the Malayalam film AK Ayyappanum Koshiyum. Sandhya Raju got the best choreographer’s award for the Telugu film Natyam while Thaman S (Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo) and G V Prakash Kumar (Soorarai Pouttru) shared the best music direction award. Natyam also bagged the award for best make-up by T V Rambabu.

Anees Nadodi got the award for best production design in the Malayalam film Kappela, and Sreekar Prasad bagged the award for best editing for the Tamil film Sivaranjaniyum Innum Sila Pengallum.

Madhya Pradesh was adjudged the most film-friendly state in the country while Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh received special jury mention. Child actor Varun Buddhadeb also got a special jury mention for his performance in Toolsidas Junior, the film that marked the last outing of Rajiv Kapoor before his death.

Best Telugu Film: Colour Photo

Best Tamil Film: Sivaranjaniyum Innum Sila Pengallum

Best Malayalam Film: Thinkalazcha Nishchayam

Best Marathi Film: Gostha Eka Paithanichi

Best Kannada Film: Dollu

Best Hindi Film: Toolsidas Junior

Best Bengali Film: Avijatrik

Best Assamese Film: Bridge