The 66th Filmfare Awards South was held on Saturday at Chennai’s Nehru Indoor Stadium and was hosted by actors Sundeep Kishan and Regina Cassandra. The awards ceremony was attended by stars from all four southern film industries.
First introduced in 1954, the Filmfare Awards ceremony is one of the oldest film events in India. The awards are presented annually by The Times Group to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the film industry of India.
Malayalam director Hariharan was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award this year.
Here’s a full list of this year’s winners.
Tamil
Actors Dhanush and Vijay Sethupathi shared the Best Actor Award (male) for their performances in Vada Chennai and 96 respectively. This is Dhanush’s 8th Filmfare Award. While Mari Selvaraj’s Pariyerum Perumal won Best Film, director Ramkumar who made Raatsasan won Best Director.
The film 96 was mentioned quite a few times that evening with actor Trisha winning Best Actor (female) for her performance as Janu in the film. Singer Chinmayi received Best Singer (female) for her ‘Kaathale Kaathale’ in this film while music composer Govind Vasantha too received the Best Music Director Award for his compositions in 96 while Karthik Netha who penned most of the lyrics for the film won Best Lyricist this year.
Actor Arvind Swami won the Critics Award for Best Actor (male) for his role in Chekka Chivantha Vaanam while actor Aishwarya Rajesh clinched the award for her role as a bold woman cricketer in Kanaa.
Sid Sriram won Best Singer for ‘Hey Penne’ in composer Yuvan Shankar Raja’s musical Pyaar Prema Kaadhal in Tamil and for ‘Inkem Inkem Inkem Kaavaale’ in the Telugu film Geetha Govindam. Actor Raiza Wilson, who made her feature film debut as the main lead in Pyaar Prema Kaadhal, received the best debutante award.
Actor Sathyaraj won Best Supporting Actor (male) for his role of a father in Kanaa while actor Saranya Ponvannan as mother in Nayanthara’s Kolamavu Kokila took home the award for Best Supporting Actor (female). Director, actor and dancer Prabhudeva won the Best Choreographer award along with Jani for their phenomenal work in the song ‘Rowdy Baby’ in Maari 2 featuring Dhanush and Sai Pallavi. The song went on to become 2019’s most watched music video in India.
Malayalam
Sudani From Nigeria won the Best Film award in Malayalam while director Lijo Jose Pellissery won Best Director for Ee.Ma.Yau. Joju George took home the award for Best Actor (male) for his role in Joseph while actor Manju Warrier won it for Aami. Actor Soubin Shahir won the Critics Award for Best Actor (male) for his role in Sudani From Nigeria while Nimisha Sajayan won it for Eeda. Vinayakan’s role in Ee.Ma.Yau won him Best Actor in a Supporting Role (male) and actor Savithri Sreedharan won the same in the female category for her performance in Sudani From Nigeria.
Best lyricist in Malayalam went to BK Harinarayanan for ‘Jeevamshamayi’ in the film Theevandi and Kailas Menon won Best Music Album Award for his compositions in the same film.
The award for Best Playback Singer (female) was won by Anne Amie for ‘Aararo’ in Koode while Vijay Yesudas won it for ‘Poomuthole’ in the film Joseph. Actor Saniya Iyyapan won Best Debut Actor for her performance in Queen.
Telugu
In Telugu, Rangasthalam won several awards including Best Actor (male) for Ram Charan, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (female) for Anasuya Bharadwaj, Devi Sri Prasad for Best Music Album, Best lyricist to Chandra Bose for the song ‘Entha Sakkagunnavey’, and Rathnavelu for Best Cinematography.
Young director Nag Ashwin won best director for Mahanati and the film itself won the Best Film Award. Actor Dulquer Salmaan won the Critics Award for Best Actor (male) for his performance in this film and actor Keerthi Suresh won Best Actor (female) for her highly appreciated titular role in this Savitri biopic. Rashmika Mandanna’s role in Geetha Govindam won her the Critics Award for Best Actor (female).
Actor Jagapathi Babu won Best Supporting Actor (male) for Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava and singer Shreya Ghoshal won Best Singer (female) for ‘Mandaraa Mandaraa’ in Anushka Shetty’s Bhaagamathie.
Kannada
In Kannada, Mansore won Best Director for the film Nathicharami while KGF won the Best Film Award. While KGF’s lead Yash won Best Actor (male), Nathicharami’s lead Sruthi Hariharan won the Critics Award for Best Actor (female). Manvitha Kamath in Tagaru won Best Actor (female) while Sathish Ninasam won the Critics Award for Best Actor (male) for his role in Ayogya.
The Best Lyricist award in Kannada went to Dr HS Venkatesh Murthy for ‘Sakkareya Paakadali’ in Hasiru Ribbon. The award for Best Playback Singer (female) was won by Bindhumalini for ‘Bhaavalokada’ in Nathicharami while the award for Best Playback Singer (male) went to Sanjith Hegde for ‘Shaakuntle Sikkalu’ in Naduve Antaravirali. The award for Best Music Album was won by Vasuki Vaibhav for Sa Hi Pra Shaale Kasaragodu.
The award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (female) was won by actor Sharanya for her role in Nathicharami. While the award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (male) went to Dhananjayaka for Tagaru.