Kamal Haasan's tribute to his mentor K. Balachander was the highlight of IIFA

The Gachibowli Stadium has been witnessing the celebration of South Indian cinema with the IIFA Utsavam starting its Indian edition for the first time in Hyderabad on Sunday.

Many artistes from Mollywood and Tollywood represented their respective industries at the event. Stars like Kamal Haasan, Nasser and Prakash Raj appreciated IIFA for recognising the South Film Industry.

Kamal hassan at IIFA Utsavam

Kamal’s tribute to his mentor K. Balachander was the highlight of the evening. “I joined him when I was 18 and he left me as I turned 60. I worked with him in 36 films; he always treated me like a son. He scolded me when I did bad work and appreciated me for good performances. He has created an environment for us to learn,” an emotional Kamal said.

He remembered his long association with Hyderabad as he was introduced in Telugu with Maro Charitra by KB himself. “It was rare to find a mentor like Balachander. He had worked with three generations of actors,” says Kamal. 

Adah Sharma at IIFA Utsavam

When it came to the awards, the night was dominated by the epic movie Baahubali — The Beginning, which won five awards in Kollywood including Best Picture,  Supporting Role (Male), Supporting Role (Female), Playback Singer (Male) and Playback Singer (Female).

Every time the movie’s name was announced, the crowd cheered aloud. But sadly, most of the Baahubali team couldn’t make it to the event and only Ramya Krishnan, Tamannaah and Nasser were in attendance.

Ramya won Best Supporting Role for playing Sivagami in Baahubali and actor Satyaraj, too, won the same for his portrayal of Kattappa. Telugu singer Geetha Madhuri won the

Shreya Ghoshal IIFA Utsavam Best Female Singer award for her Tamil song.

 

The award for the best male lead was won by Jayam Ravi for Thani Oruvan and Nayanthara became the best leading lady for Maya. Anirudh Ravichander won the best music director award for Kaththi.

When it came to the Malayalam film categories, the movie Ennu Ninte Moideen took home the highest number of accolades with a total of six awards, including Best Picture, Leading Role (Male), Leading Role (Female), Supporting Role (Female) and Playback Singer (Female), followed by Premam, which bagged four awards.

The evening also saw some mind-blowing performances by actresses Kavya Madhavan, Shriya Saran, Adah Sharma, Tapsee Pannu, Mamta Mohandas and Nikki Galrani.  Actors Jiiva and Bharath also gave outstanding performances. Actor Madhavan spoke about the legendary artistes K. Balachander, M.S. Viswanathan and T.E. Vasudevan.

KOLLYWOOD
Best Picture: Baahubali —The Beginning
Direction: Mohan Raja (Thani Oruvan)
Leading Role (Male): Jayam Ravi (Thani Oruvan)
Leading Role (Female): Nayanthara (Maya)
Supporting Role (Male): Sathyaraj (Baahubali —The Beginning)
Supporting Role (Female): Ramya Krishnan (Baahubali —The Beginning)
Comic Role: Kovai Sarala (Kanchana 2)
Negative Role: Arvind Swamy (Thani Oruvan)
Music Direction: Anirudh Ravichander (Kaththi)
Lyrics: Dhanush (Maari)
Playback Singer (Male): Haricharan (Baahubali — The Beginning)
Playback Singer (Female): Geetha Madhuri (Baahubali —The Beginning)

MOLLYWOOD
Best Picture: Ennu Ninte Moideen
Direction: Lal Jose (Neena)
Leading Role (Male): Prithviraj Sukumaran (Ennu Ninte Moideen)
Leading Role (Female): Parvathi Menon (Ennu Ninte Moideen)
Supporting Role (Male): Aju Varghese (Oru Vadakan Selfie)
Supporting Role (Female): Lena Kumar (Ennu Ninte Moideen)
Comic Role: Vinay Forrt (Premam)
Negative Role: Jayasurya (Iyobinte Pusthakam)
Music Direction: Rajesh Murugesan (Premam)
Lyrics: Shabareesh Varma (Premam)
Playback Singer (Male): Vijay Yesudas (Premam)