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 The 49th Filmfare awards, for the year 2001, took place, in style, in Chennai. Awards were given to Tamil, Telugu,
Kannada and Malayalam movies. Well known directors, actors, producers and other glitterati were present during the awards function, which saw a full house.
Dance director-cum-actor Lawrence and his team staged a dance drama, much to the delight of the audience. Jyotika carried the entire audience with her with the 'O Podu' dance number. Kiran and Thiyaj Misra gave a few numbers and entertained the audience.
 The best actor for the year 2001 was Vikram, for his role as a visually handicapped person in the film 'Kasi'.
Sudeep, for his role in 'Sethu', was adjudged the best Kannada actor, while Jayram walked away with the best actor award in Malayalam, for his role in 'Theerthadanam'. Uday Kiran got the best Telugu actor award for his role in 'Noovu Nenu''.
Laila for her role in the Tamil movie 'Nanda', Prema for Kannada, Samyuktha Varma for Malayalam and Bhumika for Telugu got the best actress awards.
 Cheran, director of 'Pandavar Bhoomi', Tamil, was the best director awardee. This is Cheran's third filmfare award. Nagandhvalli Chandrasekhar in Kannada and Vinayan in Malayalam were the other award winners in this category.
Suresh Peter, who composed music for the Malayalam movie, 'Ravanaprabhu', Guru Kiran, music director of the Kannada movie 'Chitra', R.B. Patnaik for Telugu and Harris Jayaraj for his 'Minnale' score were given the best music director awards.
Bombay Jaisree, for 'Vaseegara' got the best playback singer award. 'Medhu Malkar',' Noovu Nenu' and 'Anandham' got the best picture awards. The best newcomer award went to Reema Sen for her role in 'Minnale'.
 Rathnavelu was adjudged the best
cinematographer for his work in 'Nanda', while Lawrence was the best dance master for his work in 'Parthale Paravasam'.
M.S. Viswanathan and Dasari Narayana Rao were honoured with Life Time Achievement awards.
Miss World Yuktha Mookey compered the show.
Some of the highlights:
Rathnavelu, who received the best cinematographer award, dedicated the award to Bala and his guru Rajeev
Menon.
There was rapturous applause for a funny ad on Sachin Tendulkar produced by
TOI.
MSV made the audience roar with laughter when he told Yuktha Mookey that he did not know any English. In his acceptance speech, he said, " This has been given to me with lot of affection and I accept this award. My aim is to achieve more. I am still working tirelessly for that." The film fraternity that was present gave him a standing ovation.
Dasari exhorted the directors not to go after the actors, like beggars begging for alms. The
directors' faces were not a pretty sight!
Vivek failed to enthuse the audience. He wound up by making a fervent plea to discourage piracy and keep the cinema industry alive.
Prema, Kannada actress, said she was keen on acting as a lunatic!
The audience smiled knowingly when Bhumika, best actress in Telugu, thanked director
S.J. Surya (there were reports recently about their estrangement!).
Laila, invited her parents on stage and kissed them.
Director Bala was very delighted with so many awardees thanking him, when they collected their awards.
'Noovu
Nenu' created a record, by bagging a number of awards.
Seniors like Rajini, Kamal, Ajith, Vijay and Vijaykanth were
conspicuous by their absence.
Cheran made a controversial speech by decrying the National Awards and endorsing the Filmfare awards as politics free. "I have always dreamt of getting many awards like
K. Balachander has got. I thank my fans and well wishers," he concluded.
Vikram, who got the best actor award said, "Two years ago I got the Filmfare award for my role in Sethu. Now I have got this award for Kasi. I thank
Mr. Vinayan for creating this role. I was inspired by Kalabhavan Mani's role in Malayalam. I thank him. There were a number of doubting
Thomases when Kasi was being shot. They all opined this movie would not be a commercial success and also asked me why I was acting in such a film. They were all proved wrong and the people made it a big hit. My thanks are due to them. I also thank the media for their support. I went through a lot of hardships when I was working in this movie. My heart shudders at the thought of hardships the visually impaired have to endure, all through their lives. Let us show our appreciation for these courageous people for their amazing self confidence and let us all do a 'O' for them," he concluded. The audience lost no time in joining Vikram to salute these men and women and did a 'O'. (The reference was to the hit song 'O podu')
Saravanan
Tr.Ellar
published on 23rd April 2002
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