The list of the winners of the 69th National Film Awards 2023 is out now and it is safe to say that internationally acclaimed ‘RRR’ and pan-Indian success ‘Pushpa’ have won a major chunk of awards making the Telugu film industry very proud. While a few deserving Bollywood and other language films were awarded, the domination of the Telugu film industry can clearly be seen. For his brilliant performance, Icon Star Allu Arjun won the Best Actor award while Alia Bhatt and Kriti Sanon shared the Best Actress award.
‘RRR’ won the National Award in the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment category while Madhavan’s ‘Rocketry’ won the Best Feature Film Award. ‘The Kashmir Files’ too won the ‘Best Feature Film on National Integration’ and Pallavi Joshi won the Best Supporting Actress for the same film. Pankaj Tripathi won the Best Supporting Actor for his act in ‘Mimi’.
The Best Music Director (Songs) was awarded to Devi Sri Prasad for his blockbuster tunes in ‘Pushpa’ while Oscar-winning composer MM Keeravani got the award in the Best Music Direction (Background Score) category. Kaala Bhairavaa won the Best Playback Singer Male award while Chandrabose won the Best Lyrics award but for ‘Dham Dham Dham’ song in ‘Konda Polam’. Prem Rakshith bagged the Best Choreography award for ‘RRR’ while Srinivas Mohan won the award in the ‘Best Special Effects Category’ for Rajamouli’s film.
King Solomon got the Best Stunt Choreography award for ‘RRR’ while the awards for Best Editor & Best Make-Up went to ‘Gangubai Khatiawadi’. ‘Uppena’ won the Best Telugu Film award. It is quite strange to see a massive hit like ‘KGF – 2’ not get a single award.