Keerthy Suresh fourth Telegu actress to win National Awards honour

Hyderabad: It is a big day for Telugu filmdom with Keerthy Suresh being awarded Best Actress at the National Film Awards for Telugu film Mahanati. It is the first time in nearly three decades that an actress from the Telugu film industry has won this award.

The last time the best actress award came to Tollywood was in 1990 when Vijayashanti got it for Karthavyam, directed by Mr A. Mohan Gandhi.

Three other films, Rangasthalam, Awe and Chi La Sow won awards in different categories, bringing cheer to Tollywood.

Mainstream Hindi cinema emerged a major winner at the 66th national film awards on Friday with multiple recognitions for Andhadhun, Uri: The Surgical Strike and Badhaai Ho while the Gujarati film Hellaro bagged the best film honour. The best actor award was shared by Vicky Kaushal for Uri: The Sur-gical Strike and Ayush-mann Khuranna for his role in Andhadhun.

Mahanati is based on the life of the legendary actress Savitri. The film was critically acclaimed and a commercial success. It was also adjudged the best Telugu film at the national film awards.

Mahanati’s director Nag Ashwin said he was happy and excited that Keerthy won the award.

“Savitri garu never won a national award, so may be through this film she gets national recognition. I know there is big competition, and that Keerthy won this award is more satisfying for me,” Nag Ashwin said. Keerthy is the fourth actress from Tollywood to bag the national Best Actress award after Sarada (for Nimajjanam, 1978), Archana (Daasi, 1988) and Vijayashanti.

In other categories, director Rahul Ravindran won the Best Screenplay award for Chi La Sow and Raja Krishnan M.R. won for the technical category of mixed track for Rangasthalam.

Mahanati also won for Best Costume Designer, for Indrakshi Pattanaik, Gaurang Shah and Archana Rao. Awe won two awards, one for Best Make-up artist for Ranjit, and the other for Best Special Effects.