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Can of worms

A still from Choodalani Undi. Click for bigger pic!

Shahbaz Husain in Hyderabad

The prestigious Nandi film awards given away by the Andhra Pradesh government faces flak, with the selection committee being accused of bias in picking the awardees for 1998. A well-known technician is even planning to approach the court against the selection.

Criticism began pouring in no sooner had the awards been announced. Well-known cinematographer Chota K Naidu reacted sharply to the fact that he had missed an award yet again. But what troubled Chota more was that the best cinematographer award went to Jayanan Vincent, whose father was part of the Nandi awards committee.

Chota alleges that veteran cinematographer Vincent influenced the committee to give his son the award. Jayanan Vincent was chosen for the award for his work in Premante Idera, starring Venkatesh and Preity Zinta.

But Chota was expecting the award for his work in the Chiranjeevi-starrer Choodalani Undi. Chota was riled enough to demand that both the films been seen again and compared.

Prakash Rai. Click for bigger pic!

"There is no way I will leave the matter here. I will move the court," he said.

It wasn't just Chota who was cut up with the awards. Writer Posani Krishnamurali was sore that Shivayya, a film with a strong social message for which he wrote the dialogues did not earn him an award.

Posani also poked fun at the Nandi awards committee for selecting Rajitha for the role of best female comedian in Pelli Kanuka.

"I was the one who wrote the script for the film and Rajitha's role was that of a widow. There was no humour but she was selected as the best female comedian. If this isn't a joke, what is?" he asked.

Chiranjeevi's brother Nagendra Babu has dashed off a letter to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu about the 'blatant favouritism' which he claimed was visible in the selection.

Preity Zinta. Click for bigger pic!

"There were selfish motives involved in the selections," Nagendra Babu, producer of Choodalini Undi. wrote in the letter.

The film's director, Gunasekhar, said he was also shocked that the film's art director, Thota Tharani, lyric writer Veturi and cinematographer Chota weren't selected.

While these allegations can be dismissed as the result of frustration, there is some evidence that all is not well. For example, Antahpuram, produced by Tammareddy Bharadwaja, won as many as eight awards. The best actress award went to Roja for Swarnakka, also produced by Tammareddy Bharadwaja.

Though it is quite possible that Bharadwaja may have made films excellent enough to earn him nine awards, his father's presence on the committee raised some eyebrows.

Roja. Click for bigger pic!

One award that Antahpuram did not get, though, was for best director. In fact, so annoyed with that was one of the film's award winners (for best character actor), Prakash Raj, that he announced he would not accept an award since Krishna Vamsi hadn't got one too.

"Never did the awards become so controversial. It is sad that there is so much favouritism. I will fight it out," cinematographer Chota K Naidu told Rediff On The NeT.

Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Film, Television and Theatre Development Corporation chairman Murali Mohan, however, said there was no bias in the selection.

If all this were not enough, a vernacular daily carried the list of the winners a day before their names were announced.

Last heard, Murali Mohan was trying to salvage the reputation of the Nandi awards, trying to convince people not to move court.