Tamil movie “Soorarai Pottru” bagged national awards for the Best Feature Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Background Score and the Best Screenplay at the 68th National Film Awards-2020 announced on Friday.
“Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior” won the awards in the Best Actor, which went to Ajay Devgn, and for the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment categories. Devgn shared the Best Actor award with Suriya, who got the recognition for “Soorarai Pottru”, which has been directed by Sudha Kongara.
Aparna Balamurali won the Best Actress award for her performance in the Tamil film, which also got the awards in the Best Background Score (GV Prakash Kumar), and the Best Screenplay (Shalini Usha Nair and Sudha Kongara).
Late Sachidanandan KR has got the Best Director award for Malayalam movie, AK Ayyappanum Koshiyum, while the Best Female Playback Singer prize went to Nanchamma for the same movie. Rahul Deshpande was adjudged the Best Male Playback Singer. Testimony of Ana bagged the Best Non-Feature Film award. Manoj Muntashir has won the award for Best Lyrics for the Hindi movie ‘Saina’.
Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur congratulated all the winners, stating that 2020 was a particularly difficult year for films due to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the nominations consisted of great works.
Madhya Pradesh has been given the Most Film Friendly State award, while Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh has received a special mention. “The Longest Kiss” by Kishwar Desai was declared the Best Book on Cinema for the year, while Malayalam book “MT Anubhavangalude Pusthakam” and Odia book ‘Kali Paine Kalira Cinema” got a special mention.
