Karnataka State Film Award winners

Bangalore (UNI): Film stars Murali and Shruthi were presented the Karnataka Government's Best Actor and Best Actress award respectively, while 'Mona Lisa' bagged the Best Film award for 2004-05 at a glittering ceremony at Ramanagara, near here, this evening. The talented actress bagged the award for the film 'Gowdru', a family subject, and Murali walked away with the State honours for the movie 'Kanti'.Amid controversy over whether a remake film could be presented the Best Film award, 'Mona Lisa', a romantic story, managed to get the recognition.

While renowned film producer and actor M P Shankar was given the Dr Rajkumar award in recognition of his film career spanning over four decades, ace film director A T Raghu received the Puttanna Kanagal award. The life-time achievement award went to Producer Chandulal Jain and Actor-Producer Vajramuni posthumously. The special awards carried a cash prize of Rs one lakh, a memento and a certificate. Sadhu Kokila won the Best Music Director award, while the best playback singer award went to S P Balasubramanyam and Chitra in the male and female categories respectively.

Speaking after presenting the State awards, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, himself a film Producer, assured that his Government would support the Kannada filmdom to reach the pinnacle of fame. Actor 'Mukhyamantri' Chandru, who also spoke, demanded that the Karnataka Government confer industrial status to the sector and grant more sops to Kannada films. He also demanded formulation of a definite policy to deny subsidies and awards to remake/dubbed films and increase tax for films of other languages to further the interests of Kannada tinseltown.

Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, Forests Minister Chennigappa, Karnataka Film Chamber President Gangaraj, Lok Sabha member Tejaswini Ramesh were among the dignitaries present in the funaction. A host of celebrities from the Kannada film world, including actors, technicians and producers, and a large number of people were present to witness the star-studded event, organised for the first time at the taluk level in the home constituency of the Chief Minister.