Mahesh Babu, Anushka are telugu’s best

Mahesh, Anushka win top laurels at Filmfare South

Mahesh Babu won the Best Actor for Telugu drama ‘Srimanthudu’, while Nayantara bagged the Best Actress trophy for her performance in Tamil action-comedy ‘Naanum Rowdydhaan’ for the year 2015 at the star-studded 63rd Filmfare Awards Southern edition.

The best talents across the four Southern industries Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada were felicitated by Filmfare in Hyderabad on Saturday. In Telugu, SS Rajamouli's ‘Baahubali’ bagged five awards, while Mahesh Babu's ‘Srimanthudu’ won three awards.

Gunasekar-directed period drama ‘Rudhramadevi’ and National award-winning romantic war-drama ‘Kanche’ bagged two awards each. Mahesh Babu pocketed the Best Actor Award for his performance in ‘Srimanthudu’, which also fetched Devi Sri Prasad Best Music Director Award and Best Playback Singer (Male) Award for MLR Karthikeyan for the song "Pora Srimanthuda".

‘Baahubali’ won the Best Film Award and earned Rajamouli the Best Director honour, besides also fetching Best Supporting Actor (Female) award for Ramya Krishnan and Best Playback Singer (Female) Award for Geetha Madhuri for the song "Jeevanadi". SS Senthi Kumar won the Best Cinematography Award.

While Anushka Shetty won the Best Actor (Female) Award for ‘Rudhramadevi’, Allu Arjun won the Best Supporting Actor (Male) Award for the same film. Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry won the Best Lyricist Award for the song "Raa Mundadugeddham" for ‘Kanche’.

Sekar VJ won the Best Choreography Award for Ram Charan-starrer Telugu actioner ‘Bruce Lee: The Fighter’. Akkineni Akhil and Pragya Jaiswal won the Best Debut male and female award for their films ‘Akhil’ and ‘Kanche’ respectively.

Veteran Telugu actor M Mohan Babu was bestowed upon with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In Tamil, Vikram-starrer ‘I’ pocketed four awards, while Jayam Ravi's ‘Thani Oruvan’ and Dhanush's ‘Thangamagan’ bagged two awards each. Vignesh Shivan-directed ‘Naanum Rowdydhaan’ and critically acclaimed ‘Kaaka Muttai’ won an award each.

Vikram won the Best Actor award for his performance as a body-builder turned suave model in ‘I’, which also won the Music Director Award for AR Rahman, Best Lyrics for Madhan Karky and Best Playback Singer (Male) for Sid Sriram for the song "Ennodu Nee Irundhal". Nayantara walked with Best Actor (Female) for her performance in ‘Naanum Rowdydhaan’.

For ‘Thani Oruvan’, Mohan Raja won the Best Director Award while Arvind Swamy walked with the Best Supporting Actor (Male). Shweta Mohan won the Best Playback (Female) singer for the song from "Enna Solla" from ‘Thanga Magan’, which also won veteran actress Radikaa Sarath Kumar an award for Best Supporting Actor (Female).

National Award-winning ‘Kaaka Muttai’ bagged the award for Best Film. Composer-turned-actor GV Prakash won the Best Debut (Male) award for horror-comedy ‘Darling’.

The critics' award for Best Actor (Male) went to Jayam Ravi for his powerful performance in ‘Thani Oruvan’. In the same category, Jyotika won the Best Actor female award for ‘36 Vayadhinile’.

In Malayalam, RS Vimal-directed biographical romantic drama "Ennu Ninte Moideen" bagged seven awards including Best Director. Mammootty-starrer ‘Pathemari’ bagged two awards including Best Film and Best Actor (Male).

Critically acclaimed ‘Premam’ fetched Vijay Yesudas Best Playback Singer (Male) award for the song "Malare Ninne". Prithviraj Sukumaran-starrer ‘Ennu Ninte Moideen’ earned its leading lady Parvathy Best Actor (Female) award, apart from Best Supporting Actor male and female for Tovino Thomas and Lena.

M Jayachandran won the Best Music Director Award. Rafeeq Ahmed and Shreya Ghoshal won the Best Lyricist and Best Playback Singer (Female) awards respectively for the song "Kathirunnu" from "Ennu Ninte Moideen".

In Kannada, Anup Bhandari-directed ‘Rangi Taranga’ bagged four awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor male (Saikumar) and Best Playback Singer (female) for Ichara Rao for the song "Kareyole".

Puneeth Rajkumar won the Best Actor (Male) Award for his work in ‘Rana Vikrama’, while Parul Yadav won the Best Actor (Female) Award for ‘Aatagara’. Sudharani won the Best Supporting Actor (Female) honour for her performance in ‘Vastuprakara’.