Dhanush, Samantha win top honours at Vijay Awards

Chennai: Tamil actors Dhanush, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and director Balaji Sakthivel won top honours at the 7th edition of the Vijay Awards.

As many as 30 awards were given away in different categories at a gala ceremony Saturday, including Chevalier Sivaji award for excellence in Indian cinema to Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. While Dhanush won the best actor male award for his performance in his wife Aishwarya`s directorial debut "3", Samantha won the best actor female award for her work in "Neethaane En Ponvasantham". Tamil teen crime-thriller "Vazhakku En 18/9" was named the best film, while the film`s director Balaji Sakthivel lifted the best director trophy. For his performance as a mahout in Tamil romantic-drama "Kumki", actor Vikram won the best debut male award, while Varalakshmi Sarathkumar won the best debut female award for "Poda Podi". Kannada actor Kiccha Sudeep won the best villain trophy for critically acclaimed revenge-drama "Naan Ee" and the best comedian gong went to comic star Santhanam for romantic-comedy "Oru Kal Oru Kannadi". Actor Sathyaraj won the best supporting actor male award for his performance in "Nanban", Tamil remake of Hindi comedy "3 Idiots". Best supporting actor female award went to Anupama Kumar for romantic-thriller "Muppoluthum Un Karpanaigal". D. Imman won the best music director award for romantic-drama "Kumki". Tamil period-drama "Aravaan" won two awards - best costume design and best art design awards for S. Rajendran and R.K Vijay Murugan, respectively. Anal Arasu won the best stunt director for romantic-action `Thadaiyara Thaakka`, while Gopi Amarnath was awarded the best cinematographer for horror-thriller `Pizza`, which also won the best screenplay award for debutant director Karthik Subbaraj. Thamarai won the best lyricist award for her song `Kangal Neeye` in `Muppoluthum Un Karpanaigal`, while Robert won the best choreographer award for `Poda Podi`. Balaji Tharaneetharan won the best debut director award for comedy `Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom` and Rajesh M won the best dialogue writer award for romantic-comedy `Oru Kal Oru Kannadi`. Composer Anirudh Ravichander and actor-producer Udhayanidhi Stalin were honoured with best find of the year and face of the year awards, respectively. Family-drama `Aarohanam` won the jury award, best actor jury award was given to Vijay Sethupathi. Tamil actor Vijay pocketed two awards - best entertainer of the year and favourite hero for films `Nanban` and `Thuppakki`, respectively. Vijay`s `Thuppakki` also won the favourite film award, while the song `Google Google` from the same film won the favourite song of the year award. Filmmaker A.R. Murugadoss was awarded favourite director of the year for the same film. Tamil horror-thriller `Pizza` walked away with the best crew award. IANS