National Awards: Malayalam movie 'Aattam: The Play' is best feature film
Sooraj Barjatya best director
New Delhi, Aug 16: Regional cinema dominated the National Film Awards announced on Friday with best feature film going to Malayalam movie "Aattam: The Play" and Rishabh Shetty bagging best actor for the Kannada hit "Kantara". The best actress prize was shared by Nithya Menen, for the Tamil film "Thiruchitrambalam", and Manasi Parekh for the Gujarati movie "Kutch Express".
The lone Bollywood presence in the top categories for the 70th edition of the national awards was "Uunchai" with Sooraj R Barjatya named best director.
The adventure film, centred on four aging friends readying to scale Mt Everest, also won Neena Gupta a best supporting actress prize.
"It is yet to sink in. I've got two National Awards in the past and I'm getting another National award after many many years, it's a big thing for me," Gupta, who bagged awards for the non-feature "Bazar Sitaram" in 1993 and for "Woh Chokri" in 1994, told PTI.
A big winner in the awards for 2022 was the Haryanvi film "Fouja", which got Pavan Malhotra a best supporting actor and won two other awards -- best debut film of a director for Pramod Kumar and best lyrics to Naushad Sadar Khan.
The awards were announced by Rahul Rawail, head of the jury for the feature film segment, and Nila Madhab Panda, who headed the non-feature film category.
"Aattam: The Play", directed by Anand Ekarshi, revolves around a theatre troupe and the changing dynamics after its only woman member alleges she has been groped by one of the men.
The Kannada blockbuster "Kantara", which explores the intricate connection between humanity and nature through its folklore-based storytelling, was also named in the category for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. Best actor Shetty plays the dual roles of a father and son.
Sharmila Tagore and Manoj Bajpayee starrer "Gulmohar", a family drama exploring the meaning of family and home, was judged best Hindi film with its director Rahul V Chittela taking home the award for best dialogue writer with Arpita Mukherjee.
Bajpayee also got a special mention along with music director Sanjoy Salil Chowdhury for Malayalam title "Kadhikan".
A R Rahman won the National Film Award for best music director (background music) for his work in Mani Ratnam's "Ponnyin Selvan-Part 1", which was also named the best Tamil film. Pritam got the award for best music director (songs) for "Brahmastra-Part 1". Arijit Singh was named the best male playback singer for the song "Kesariya" from Ayan Mukerji's "Brahmastra Part One: Shiva".
The Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt starrer also bagged the award for best film in AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming and comic) category.
Padma Shri awardee Bombay Jayashri won the award for best female playback singer for the track "Chaayum Veyil" for "Saudi Vellaka CC 225/2009", which also won the best Malayalam film award.
Besides the best actress honour for Menen, "Thiruchitrambalam", a comedy also starring Dhanush, earned the honour for best choreography for Jani Master and Sathish Krishnan. Niki Joshi won the trophy for best costume designer for "Kutch Express".
Seasoned cinematographer Ravi Varman bagged the best cinematography for Ratnam's "Ponniyin Selvan", which also took the honour for best sound design for Anand Krishnamoorthi.
"Aattam" won two more awards -- best screenplay (original) for Anand Ekarshi and best editing for Mahesh Bhuvanend.
The award for best action direction(stunt choreography) went to Anbumani and Arivumani, jointly known as Anbariv.
The best child artist award went to Sreepath for "Malikapurram" in Malayalam.
From Bengali cinema, "Aparajito" won the award for best make-up and best production design for Anand Adhya, while best Bengali film went to Kaushik Ganguly's "Kaberi Antardhan".
The other regional films that won awards include "Kartikeya 2" (Telugu), "Baaghi Di Dhee" (Punjabi), "Daman" (Odia), "Vaalvi" (Marathi) and "KGF: Chapter 2" (Kannada). The best Tiwa film award was won by "Sikaisal".
From the non-feature category, the top honour went to "Ayena" by director Siddhant Sarin.
Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj won the best music director for his short film "Fursat".
"Just heard about the national award for Fursat. I am deeply happy to get my 9th national award. It's the biggest award of our country. The only one that truly matters. And winning this is the greatest validation of my work! Thank you jury for this. Now I need to strive for a double digit," the director, who had earlier won the same honour for short film "1232 KMS", said in a statement.
The best film critic award went to Deepak Dua. Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar won the best book on cinema for "Kishore Kumar: The Ultimate Biography".
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Telangana CM urges Amit Shah to increase sanctioned strength of IPS officers in state
Hyderabad (PTI): Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Wednesday night and urged him to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state in view of its growing administrative and security needs.
The two leaders also discussed the recent surrender of several senior Maoist leaders before the Telangana Police and other issues.
"During the meeting, the two leaders discussed the issue of Maoist surrenders and their rehabilitation. The chief minister informed Shah that significant improvements in policing have taken place in Telangana over the past two years," an official release here said.
Highlighting that 591 Maoists have laid down their arms and joined the mainstream of society during this period, the chief minister said the state government was providing them compensation and rehabilitation assistance as per the rules.
He requested the Union home minister to extend financial support from the central government for development works in the backward regions of the state.
Reddy also urged Shah to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state from 83 to 105 in line with the state's growing administrative and security needs, the statement said.
The first cadre review after the formation of Telangana was conducted in 2016, while the next review, due in 2021, was delayed and finally carried out in 2025. Even then, only seven additional IPS officers were allocated to the state, the chief minister informed Shah and requested that the third cadre review be conducted in 2026 as per the schedule.
Reddy explained that Telangana, like the rest of the country, is facing several modern challenges, including cybercrime, drug trafficking, white-collar crimes, and other emerging security threats.
He highlighted the reorganisation of the Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Malkajgiri Police Commissionerates, the proposed formation of the Future City Commissionerate and the rapidly growing population in Hyderabad to underline the increasing administrative requirements of the state.
