Kannada shimmers on this year’s National Film Awards
Kannada shimmers on this year’s National Film Awards
For the Kannada Cinema, 2024, has been a moment to celebrate as Prashanth Neel’s KGF: Chapter 2, Yash, won two awards: Best Kannada Film and Best Action Direction.
The 2022 released film was a sequel to KGF: Chapter 1 and also featured Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon, Srinidhi Shetty, and Prakash Raj, among others. It also marked Raveena’s return to the big screen five years after the Hindi film Shab and it’s for the second time that a film featuring the actor has received a National Award, the first being Ram Gopal Varma’s Shool.
Raveena amidst speaking to a news channel articulated that it’s great for them and this is the next National Award after Shool. She added that she hasn’t had the opportunity to speak to anyone from the team yet. Incidentally, her husband (Anil Thadani; distributor) flew there to meet Prashanth, and they’re in Hyderabad right now. For the unversed, back in 2001, Raveena had bagged Best Actress at the 48th National Film Awards for Kalpana Lajmi’s Daman: A Victim Of Marital Violence.
The Padma Shri winner says that despite being an actor for 33 years now, awards, especially a national honor, still fill her with excitement. “Of course, awards still excite her. That’s the appreciation you get for films that deserve it, and for KGF: Chapter 2 to get that kind of recognition is a big shot in the arm. It’s exhilarating, satisfying, and gratifying. So, she is elated that apart from its commercial success and critical acclaim, KGF: Chapter 2 has also won the National Award.
Though many may think that the Yash starrer was her comeback vehicle, Raveena disagrees saying that she didn’t completely leave and then make a comeback with KGF: Chapter 2, but was still doing movies in between. She did Maatr and a couple of Telugu films. So, KGF: Chapter 2 wasn’t a comeback and that she was just lucky to have this film come to her.
The actress was quick to add that doing a film like KGF: Chapter 2 “made a lot of difference” to her career. “After that, she did Patna Shukla and feels happy that a film of the level of KGF: Chapter 2 was offered to her because it made such a difference. Besides being a commercial success, it was a different kind of cinema. Working with a fresh, new team that included Prashanth and Yash was a refreshing change for me. She is elated that it’s winning the recognition it deserves.
Speaking of Kannada films at the 70th National Film Awards, Rishabh Shetty won Best Actor for Kantara, which also bagged the award for Best Popular Film. Congratulating him, Yash took to X and wrote, “Heartiest congratulations to all the winners of the National Awards.
News Edit K.V.Raman
