The 47th Kerala State Film Awards on Tuesday were swept by the parallel cinema, leaving the big names and the mainstream film industry in the backseat.
The awards were announced here by state Minister for Cultural Affairs A.K. Balan.
Vinayakan's performance in the film "Kammatipaadam", directed by Rajeev Ravi, won him the Best Actor.
"The full credit for this award goes to my director Rajeev Ravi. I will continue to act till I die," said Vinayakan, who has been doing small-time roles for a long time and has acted in films of other South Indian languages too.
Interestingly, the Best Director honour went for the first time to a woman. Vidhu Vincent won it for her film "Manhole", which was selected as the Best Film. It's a movie on manual scavengers.
"I am hugely excited as not only have I won the Best Director Award, but my movie has also won the Best Film Award. What more should one expect? With this, I feel my responsibility has increased as cinema is a cultural product and I have to come up with such products again," said Vincent, a journalist-turned-filmmaker.
Also honoured at the Kerala State Film Awards was the late O.N.V. Kurup, the legendary literary figure who penned numerous award-winning lyrics. He passed away in February 2016, and has got the award posthomously for his lyrics in the film "Kamboji".
"He (ONV) wrote the songs in three days," said his wife.
The award for the Best Actress went to Rajisha Vijayan for her role in the film "Anuraga Karikkin Vellam".
Overwhelmed with the award, the TV anchor-turned-actress said: "Honestly, till today morning, I never had any clue at all about the awards. I did not know if the film had been sent for the awards. Now when I heard the news that I have won the Best Actress Award in my debut film, believe me, my happiness is too great to be expressed."
This year, 68 films came before the jury, led by popular cameraman and Oriya film director A.K. Bir and 10 films made it to the final round.
--IANS
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