Yas Island: IIFA Utsavam, which was held on Friday as part of the three-day International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards 2024, celebrated talent across all four South film industries – Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Mani Ratnam, AR Rahman, Nani, and Mrunal Thakur were the top winners at the IIFA Utsavam, which marked the beginning of the grand event in Abu Dhabi.
Each film industry felicitated winners in the categories of best picture, direction, performance in a leading role (male and female), performance in a supporting Role (male and female), performance in a negative role, music direction, lyrics, and playback singer (male and female), PTI reports. In Tamil cinema, action comedy 'Jailer', fronted by superstar Rajinikanth, was announced as the best picture (Tamil).
Aishwarya was named the best leading actor (female) in "Ponniyin Selvan: II", with its maker Mani Ratnam being adjudged in the direction category. Vikram and Jayaram Ravi were declared the best actor (male) and supporting roles (male), respectively. For his work on "Ponniyin Selvan: II", AR Rahman won the trophy for best music direction alongside singers Haricharan and Shakthisree Gopalan in both best playback singer categories.
Sahasra Shre won best actor in a supporting role (female) for Siddharth's 'Chithha', whereas S. J. Suryah won the award in the best negative performance category for his work in 'Mark Antony'. Super Subu bagged the award for lyrics in the song 'Hukum - Thalaivar Alappara' from 'Jailer'.
In Telugu cinema, action thriller 'Dasara' topped the list with a win in the best picture category. Its lead star Nani walked away with the best leading role (male) award and Shine Tom Chacko winning in the best negative performer category for the role in the film.
Anil Ravipudi won the direction award for 'Bhagavanth Kesari' and Mrunal Thakur turned the best leading actor (female) for 'Hi Nanna'. Varalaxmi Sarathkumar won the best actor in supporting role (female) for 'Veera Simha Reddy' and the best supporting role (male) trophy went to Brahmanandam for 'Ranga Maarthaanda'. Hesham Abdul Wahab won the IIFA award in the music direction category for 'Hi Nanna' and Anantha Sriram earned the award for lyrics of the song 'O Rendu Prema Meghaalila' ('Baby').
Rahul Sipligunj ('Ayyayyo' from 'Mem Famous') and Mangli ('Ooru Palletootu' from 'Balagam') won in the playback singer categories. In the Malayalam film segment, the best picture prize went to '2018: Everyone Is A Hero', which was India's official entry to Oscars last year. Jeo Baby won in best direction for his project 'Kaathal The Core', starring Mammootty and Jyotika.
Best performances in leading roles went to Anaswara Rajan for 'Neru' and Tovino Thomas for '2018: Everyone Is A Hero'. In supporting role categories, the winners were Mamitha Baiju for 'Pranaya Vilasam' and Sudhi Kozhikode for 'Kaathal The Core'. Arjun Radhakrishnan was recognised in the best performance in the negative role category for 'Kannur Squad'. The award for music direction went to Sushin Shyam for 'Romancham', whereas Joe Paul earned the award for best lyrics. Sushin Shyam and Ezma Nobin emerged as the best singers.
Under the Kannada branch, 'Kaatera' was named the best picture, with filmmaker Tharun Kishore Sudhir receiving the award for best direction category for the same movie. Rukmini Vasanth and Rakshit Shetty won best leading actors for 'Sapta Sagaradaache Ello - Side A'. Shruthi ('Kaatera') and Gopal Krishna Deshpande ('Sapta Sagaradaache Ello - Side A') earned acting awards in supporting categories.
Jagapathi Babu ('Kaatera') won the award for best performance in a negative role. 'Kaatera' composer V Harikrishna bagged the best music direction trophy. Dhananjay Ranjan took away the prize for best lyrics ('Sapta Sagaradaache Ello - Side A'). MC Bijju, Keerthan Holla and Srilakshmi Belmannu won in playback singer categories for 'Sapta Sagaradaache Ello - Side A'. The 24th edition of the IIFA Awards will conclude on Sunday.