Nandi Awards announced

Maheshwari

Telugu films Kalisundam Raa and Neekosam have had a decent haul at the prestigious Nandi Awards for 1999.

Kalisundam Raa won the state government award for best film. The second and third places went to Neekosam and Premakatha respectively.

While Venkatesh was adjdged best actor for his performance in Kalisundam Raa, Maheshwari was the choice for Neekosam.

Ramgopal Varma bagged the K V Reddy Gold Medal for best director (Premakatha). And the best supporting actor and actress awards went to K Viswanath (Kalisundham Raa) and Radhika (Premakatha).

Other winners are:
Best character artiste (male): Mallikarjunrao, who won the Gummadi Gold Medal for (Thammudu)
Best character artiste (female): Nirmalamma Sitaramaraju.
Best actor in a comic role (male): M S Narayana (Ramasakanodu)
Best actor in a comic role (female): Srilakshmi (Police)
Best actor in a villainous role: Tarikella Bharani (Samudram)
Best child artiste: Master Devendra (Devi)
Best playback singer (male): Hariharan
Best playback singer (female): Chitra
Best cinematographer: Venkataprasad (Premakatha)
Best Screenplay: Sreenu Vytla (the K S Prakasrao Gold Medal for Neekosam) Best dialogue: L B Sriram (Ramasakanodu)
Best lyricist: Sitaramasastry (Premakatha)
Best music composer: Vandematram Srinivas (Swayamvaram)
Best art direction: Srinivas Raju (Raja Kumaradu)
Best editing: Shankar (Samudram)
Best audiography: Madhusudhan Reddy (Samudram)
Best choreography: Lawrence / costume design: Ram Babu (Samarasimha Reddy)
Best make-up: Ramchandra Rao (Seetharamaraju)
Best film critic: Variraju Prakasam (of Vaartha)
Best dubbing artiste (male): Ravi (for Manoj Bajpai in Premakatha)
Best dubbing artiste (female): Shilpa (for Soundarya in Anaganaga Oka Ammai)
Best stunt director: Kanal Kannan (Annayya)
Special jury awards were also announced. The Akkineni Nageswararao Award for best family-oriented movie went to Venu for Swayamvaram, actor Srihari (for Police and Ramasakanodu), actress Laya (for Swayamvaram).

Bharat Ratna won the best feature film in the national integrity category.

Meanwhile, the jury -- consisting of Vijaya Nirmala, Sharada, D V Narasaraju, Dr K L Narayana Rao, K S Rama Rao, Jandhyala, Bheeram Mastan Rao, B V Pattabhi Ram and K N T Sastry -- has asked the govt to give guidelines for the dubbed film category so as to make them eligible next year.