Abhijith was in the race for the best singer award with the song 'Kuttanadan Kaattu Chodikkunnu...' for the film 'Bhayanakam' directed by Jayaraj.Singer Abhijith Vijayan, who was denied the best singer award at this year’s state film awards as the jury felt that he was trying to imitate Yesudas, has now won an international recognition.
The young vocalist has won the best singer award at the Toronto International South Asian Film Award 2018 for the song ‘Aakashapaala kombathu’ from the movie Akasha Mittayi. It was veteran actor Jayaram who shared the happy news through his Facebook page.
The winners of the awards have been chosen on the basis of an online poll by the audience.
In an emotional video posted by Abhijith on his Facebook page, the singer said that he felt overwhelmed to have won the award.
Actor Jayaram, who suggested Abhijith’s name for rendering the song, took to Facebook to congratulate the young singer on his first international accolade. He wrote, “I wish Abhijith Vijayan all success. I am sure that his honesty and humility will take him to even greater heights.”
Earlier, Abhijith had made it to the final round of the state award for the best singer for his song ‘Kuttanadan kattu chodikunnu’ from the award winning movie Bhayanakam. However he lost out to veteran singer Shahbaz Aman.
Justifying their decision, the jury had cited that Abhijith had tried to imitate the voice of the legendary singer K J Yesudas. It was alleged that the jury members had realized that the song was not sung by Yesudas but by Abhijith only in the last moment and hence denied the award to the latter.
Ace music director M K Arjunan who composed the music of Bhayanakam, meanwhile, won his first ever state award for the movie.
