'Thithi' clinches the Best Feature Film award

After earning international and national acclaim, Kannada movie ‘Thithi’ has now bagged its 13th award. This dramatic comedy, written and directed by Raam Reddy, has won three State Film Awards, including the ‘Best Feature Film’ award.

The two other categories are: ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’ – Pooja S M; and ‘Best dialogue’ – Eeregowda.

The State Film Awards for the year 2015 were announced by Information Minister Roshan Baig in Bengaluru on Tuesday, with actors Vijay Raghavendra and Malashree bagging the ‘Best Actor’ and ‘Best Actress’ awards, respectively. Awards have been announced in 25 categories, following the finalisation of a list by a nine-member select committee headed by filmmaker Naganna. The committee screened as many as 98 films over 40 days.

Films ‘Marikondavaru’ and ‘Mythri’ have come second and third in the best film category. Recently, the government announced the film awards for the year 2014. However, the awards are yet to be presented. Baig said that owing to the prevailing drought conditions, the presentation ceremony had been put on hold. “I will discuss with the chief minister and decide upon the dates for the presentation of the awards for both 2014 and 2015,” added Baig.

Also, for the first time, Lifetime Achievement awards in the categories – ‘Dr Rajkumar’, ‘Dr Vishnuvardhan’, and ‘Puttanna Kanagal’, have not been announced.

N R Vishu Kumar, Director, Information department, said a separate committee had been constituted to look into this. The committee will be headed by noted filmmaker S K Bhagavan. Kumar said the Lifetime Achievement awards were prestigious awards, needing special focus, and hence a separate committee.