MUNIRATHNA KURUKSHETRA AND PINGARA BAG THE MOST POPULAR CINEMA & THE NETPAC INTERNATIONAL JURY PRIZE RESPECTIVELY AT THE 12TH BENGALURU INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Jyothi Venkatesh

The most popular Kannada Cinema of the year award was bagged by the film Munirathna Kurukshetra directed by Naganna and produced by Vrushabhadri Productions for ‘being a rare mythological film with grandeur, lovely costumes, beautiful art design and rich dialogues while the award for the second most popular Kannada Cinema of the Year was bagged by the film Bell Bottom directed by  Jayathirtha B.V  for producer Santosh Kumar K.C ‘for its light humor, titillating dialogue and curiously woven story and screenplay all converging to provide wholesome entertainment.”The award for the third most popular Kannada Cinema of the Year went to the film Yajamana directed by V Hariskrishna and Pon Kumaran for producers Shylaja Nag and B Suresha ‘for being a good example for convergence of commerce, entertainment and social message in cinematic expression.’

In the Kannada Cinema competition organized by Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, the award for the Best Kannada Cinema was bagged by the film Kavaludari directed by Hemanth Murali Rao and produced by Ashwini Puneet Rajkumar ‘for its thrilling story and scripting, scintillating music, natural performances and competent direction, while the second award went to the film Ondu Shikariya Katha directed by Sachin Shetty and produced by Sachin Kumar Shetty and Rajeev Shetty, ‘for its presentation of the theme of human selfishness and its impact on society, fine scripting, pleasing visuals and good direction.The third award in the competition went to the film Ranganayaki directed by Dayal Padmanabhan and produced by S.V. Narayana, ‘for its inspiring story of a young rape victim recovering her lost identity in a hostile world present through incisive dialogues and powerful performance of the protagonist to create social concern on the issue.

The Special Jury Mention went to the film Selfie Mummy Google Daddy, directed and directed and produced by R. Madhuchandra, ‘for its simple narration fo contemporary societal concern of obsession with mobie phones and its consequent impact on children.” The prestigious NETPAC International Jury Prize was bagged by the film Pingara dierted  by Preetham R Shetty and produced by Avinash V Shetty and D.N. Manjunath Reddy, ‘for its portrayal of human sensitive emotions, equality between castes, confessing human mistakes in front of God. It also sets out to showcase the traditional rituals of Tulunadu, which is part of our state.”

The young and dynamic Chairman Suneel Puranik declared that he is planning to start film museums and libraries in some districts in a tie up with the tpurism ministry in order to give the tourists a good introduction to the Kannada film industry and also announced that the Chief Minister of Karnataka Shri Yeddyuruppa had given a Rs 5 crore grant to Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy for its initiatives. The Chief Minister also added that many years ago, director Satyajit Ray had declared that Karnataka film industry of that era represented the future of Indian Cinema. I wish we could revive that status of Kannada Cinema today".