Karnataka bags three National Awards

Karnataka has bagged three National Awards for two Kannada movies Gubbachigalu, Vimukti and one Tulu movie Gaggara for the year 2008-09. P Sheshadri's film Vimukti has been awarded as the Best Regional Film, debutant director Abhay Simha won the Best Children's award for his Gubbachigalu and Shivadhwaj's Gaggara won the Best Feature Film for non languages of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

P Sheshadri has earlier got Best Regional Film for four of his movies like Munnudi, Atithti, Beru, Thutturi. Interestingly, he has won the same award for all his previous movies. This is his fifth consecutive Best Regional Film award, which has been given to the film Vimukti.

56th National Film Awards were announced on Saturday January 23 and Honourable President of India Smt. Pratibha Patil will distribute the awards to the winners in Rashtrapati Bhavan in March.