Soorarai Pottru wins big at 68th National Film Awards, Suriya wins best actor

The 68th National Film Awards were handed out on Friday, July 22, and Sudha Kongura’s Tamil directorial Soorarai Pottru won big, taking the Best Feature Film title. The main lead of the film, actor Suriya has won his debut award for the Best Actor, which was announced on Friday, July 22 . Co-star of the film, Aparna Balamurali also won the award for the Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie. Soorarai Pottru which was released on November 2020, has won a total of four awards including Best Screenplay and Best Music Director award. GV Prakash Kumar was the Music Director for Soorarai Pottru. The film was produced by actor Suriya under his home banner 2D entertainment and is loosely based on the life of Deccan Airlines founder GR Gopinath. Presently, Soorari Pottru is being remade in Hindi with actor Akshay Kumar in the lead. Earlier this year, Suriya confirmed that he would make a cameo appearance in the Bollywood remake. 

Meanwhile, other notable winners of the national awards include director Madonne Ashwin, who bagged two awards for his directorial debut Mandela, for best dialogues and best debut feature film. The political satire, featuring Yogi Babu in the lead role, was a commentary on caste and politics inTamil Nadu. Vasanth S Rai directorial Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum won the award for the best feature film in Tamil. Sreekar Prasad, who was on board as the editor, has bagged the award for best editing, and actor Lakshmi Priya Chandramouli who played the role of Sivaranjani, won the award for best supporting actor. The anthology tracks the stories of three women who make sacrifices to battle patriarchy. 

Malayalam film Ayyapannum Koshiyum has also won multiple awards, including for the best female playback singer, won by Nanjamma; best supporting actor male, won by Biju Menon; while the award for for the best stunt choreography went to Rajasekhar, Mafia Sasi and Supreme Sundar; and the award for the best direction went to late director and screenwriter K. R. Sachidanandan. 

Colour Photo starring actors Suhas, Chandini Chowdary, and others has won the Best Film award for Telugu. Music Director S Thaman also won the award for the Best Background Score for the Telugu film Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo.

Malayalam film Kappela bagged the award for best production design, while Vishnu Govind and Sree Sankar have won award under the category of best audiography for Mahesh Narayanan’s Malayalam film Malik, starring actors Fahadh Faasil and Nimisha Sajayan in the lead.