Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar won Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male) and Sruthi Hariharan won Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female) at the 65th Jio Filmfare Awards (South) 2018, which was held in Hyderabad on Saturday, June 16. This is the fourth time Puneeth has won a Filmfare award for playing the lead, while it is the second time for Sruthi Hariharan. Puneeth won the award for his performance in the hit film “Raajakumara”, while Sruthi Hariharan won the award for her performance in “Beautiful Manasugalu”.
Puneeth played the role of an orphan in “Raajakuamra”, who adopts an old age home, whereas Sruthi played the role of a beautician, who is accused of being a prostitute in “Beautiful Manasugalu”. Meanwhile, Dhananjaya and Shraddha Srinath bagged the Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Male) and Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Female) respectively, for their performances in films “Allama” and “Operation Alamelamma” respectively.
Tarun Sudhir, who made his debut with the super hit film “Chowka”, got the Best Director Award. After working as an associate director and creative head for many films, he turned independent director with “Chowka”. The film showed four different stories in different years. The film is unique and became a big hit at the box office as well.
Raj B Shetty’s “Ondu Motteya Kathe” was awarded the Best Film. The film tells the tale of a bald man searching for a bride. It was made by newcomers on a small budget and was shot in a record 16 days. The film became a huge box office hit upon its release.
Meanwhile, P Ravi Shankar won Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male) for “College Kumara”. Ravi Shankar, who is known for his villain roles, played the role of a middle-class father in the film, who goes to college after many years to obtain a degree. Bhavani Prakash won Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female) for “Urvi”.
When it came to music, it was Arjun Janya, who won big, even though he did not win the award. Confused? Well, the winners had a strong connection with Arjun Janya. The Best Playback Singer (Male) went to Armaan Malik for “Ondu Malebillu” from the film “Chakravarthy”. The Best Playback Singer (Female) went to Anuradha Bhat for “Appa I Love You” from the film “Chowka”, while the Best Lyrics went to Nagendra Prasad for “Appa I Love You” from “Chowka”. Arjun Janya had composed the music for all of these films. Bharath BJ won the Best Music Director award for “Beautiful Manasugalu”.
In other languages, it was “Baahubali 2” in Telugu and “Vikaram Vedha” in Tamil, which bagged the maximum awards.
