Bollywood wins big at Nat awards, 5 trophies for 'Kutty Srank'

New Delhi, Sept 15 (PTI) Bollywood marked its stamp on
the India's 57th National Film Awards as Amitabh Bachchan won
the best actor award for his performance in "Paa" and Aamir
Khan-starrer "3 Idiots" was adjudged the best popular movie
but it was Malayalam drama "Kutty Srank" which walked away
with five awards, including the best feature film.
"Kutty Srank", with Mammoothy in the lead, also won
awards for best cinematography, best screenplay, best costume
and a special jury recognition, which it shared with Bollywood
hit "Kaminey" and Malayalam film "Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja".
Raykesh Omprakash Mehra's "Delhi 6", shot in the
bylanes of Old Delhi, bagged the Nargis Dutt award for best
feature film on national integration while Shyam Benegal's
"Well Done Abba" was chosen as the best film on social issues.
R Balki's "Paa", was also named the best Hindi film,
besides winning recognitions in the best supporting
actress category (Arundhuti Nag) and best make-up (Christein
Tinsley and Dominie Till).
Amit Trivedi got the best music director award for
Anurag Kashyap's "Dev-D", a modern take on Sarat Chandra
Chattopadhyay's classic "Devdas".
The emotional number 'Behti hawa sa tha woh' from "3
Idiots" bagged the best lyrics award for Swanand Kirkere.
Ananya Chatterjee was named the best actress for her
role in the Bengali film "Abohoman", which also fetched the
best direction award for Rituparno Ghosh and best editing for
Arghyakamal Mitra, besides being adjudged the best Bengali
movie.
Farooq Sheikh was named the best supporting actor
for his role in Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan's "Lahore", which
also won the 'Indira Gandhi Award for best debut film.
Rupam Islam was chosen as the best male playback
singer for his rendering of 'Kolakata' in the Bengali film
"Mahanagar" while the best female playback was awarded to
Nilanjana Sarkar for another Bengali movie "Houseful".

While producer Reliance Big Picture and Director Shaji
N Karun of "Kutty Srank" will get the Swarna Kamal and Rs
2,50,000 each, the producer and director of "3 Idiots" --
Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raj Kumar Hirani -- would get the
Swarna Kamal and Rs 2,00,000 each.
Bachchan would get a Rajat Kamal and Rs 50,000.
The awards were announced by chairpersons of each of
the three juries for feature films, non-feature films and film
writing.
Ramesh Sippy, chairperson of the jury on feature
films, said the system adopted for selection of movies this
time was a two-tier one in which a regional jury first
screened the films from five regions after which a central
jury went through them.
He said that based on discussions, the jury had
decided to recall five films which had not made it in the
first list at the level of the regional juries. Out of these,
two -- "Natrang" (best film in Marathi) and "Houseful" (best
female playback) won awards.
The best children's film award was shared by "Putaani
Party" in Kannada and "Keshu" in Malayalam. Jeeva and Anba
Karaus share the best child actor award.
Telegu film "Magadheera" bagged awards for special
effects and choreography.
Well known music director Ilayaraja got the award for
the award best background score for "Kerala Verma Pazasi
Raja".
The Best audiography award was shared by Oscar winner
Resool Pookutty for "Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja', Subash Sahoo
(location sound) for "Kaminey" and Anup Dev (re-recordist of
the final missed track) for "3 Idiots".
Effusive in his praise for Bachchan, Sippy said, "To
portray Auro's role was not easy" and compared to the rest of
the performances, there was hardly any discussion on it."
Bachchan had earlier won national awards for his
performances in "Black" (2005, best actor), "Agnipath" (1990,
best actor) and "Saat Hindustani" (1969, best newcomer).
Sippy said that for most of the decisions, there was
no tussle. "We did deliberate, but fortunately it was not very
difficult. Almost every decision was unanimous". PTI SPC
KAB