Filmfare South nominations announced; event slated for August 3 in Hyderabad

Bengaluru, Jul 16 (PTI) “Growing up I have always fantasised about being nominated for a Filmfare award,” Actor Rukmini Vasanth said on Tuesday.

She was addressing a press conference called to announce the nominations for the 69th Filmfare South awards, which to be held on August 3 in Hyderabad.

Vasanth, was one of the nominees for Best Actress (Kannada) for her performance in one of the hits of 2023, ‘Sapta Sagara Daache Ello’. The film also fetched nominations in the director, actor and music director categories.

Kannada actor Darshan, who is currently in prison for his alleged role in a murder, has also been nominated under Best Actor category for ‘Kaatera’.

Among the other nominees are Aishwarya Rai for Best Actress (Tamil) for 'Ponniyin Selvan, Part 2', Fahadh Faasil for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tamil) for ‘Maamannan’, Mammootty (Best Actor, Malayalam) for ‘Kaathal-The Core’ and ‘Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam’ and Prakash Raj (Best Actor in a Leading Role) for his performance in Telugu film ‘Ranga Maarthaanda’.

In the Kannada category, films that made the cut are ’19.20.21’ ‘Daredevil Mustafa’, ‘Kaatera’, ‘Kousalya Supraja Rama’ ‘Sapta Sagara Daache Ello’ and ‘Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye’.

Later in the evening, Malavika Mohanan, who will be seen next in the Tamil film ‘Thangalan’, starring Vikram, and Telugu film ‘The Raja Saab’, starring Prabhas, and who arrived late for the press conference ‘caught in the infamous Bengaluru traffic’, recalled her most memorable “Filmfare moment”.

“I think it was the year Hrithik Roshan debuted. He walked away with not one, but two Filmfare awards. Out of nowhere, he came and became the talk of the town. I was young then and he made a great impression on me,” she said.

Mohanan has acted in films of several major languages, including a Kannada film and a Hindi film directed by legendary Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi, since her debut in 2013.

Vasanth said her most memorable Filmfare moment was when Shah Rukh Khan performed with yesteryear stars. “He literally romanced with the likes of Vyjayanthimala Bali on stage,” added Vasanth.

Filmfare Editor Jitesh Pillaai said the south edition of the Filmfare awards started in 1962. “We started with four awards and now we have 60 categories in four southern languages,” said Pillaai.

This year, Filmfare is collaborating with Bengaluru- and Dubai-based real estate company Sobha Limited for the awards.

Sumeet Chunkhare, chief marketing and communications officer of Sobha Limited, said Filmfare is recalled fondly by film lovers all over India and therefore his company decided to associate with the event. “Hopefully, this is just the beginning,” he added.

Filmfare will also be collaborating again with Kamar Film Factory, a film production, distribution and exhibition company that has distributed more than 1,000 films and produced 24 films so far. Last year too, they partnered with Filmfare for the awards, Kamar D, who runs the company, said. PTI JR ANE