Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth win NTR Award

Amaravati: Veteran actors Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth and film director K. Raghvendra Rao have bagged the NTR National Film Awards for 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday announced the Nandi state film award winners and also the winners of the NTR, B. N. Reddy, Nagi Reddy-Chakrapani (all national) and Raghupathi Venkaiah film awards.

Directors S.S. Rajamouli, Trivikram Srinivas and Boyapati Srinivas won the BN Reddy Award.

The Nagi Reddy-Chakrapani award was won by filmmakers R. Narayana Murthy, M. M. Keeravani and K. S. Rama Rao. 

Krishnam Raju, Eshwar and Chiranjeevi will receive the Raghupathi Venkaiah awards for lifetime achievement and their contribution to the Telugu film industry.

N. Balakrishna (Legend), Mahesh Babu (Srimanthudu) and Junior NTR (Nannaku Prematho and Janatha Garage) won the Nandi awards for best actor for 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.

The jury committee announced the Nandi awards in 64 categories for films, theatre and television.

The state government had not announced the awards since 2014 due to bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Committee members Balakrishna, Murali Mohan, Giri Babu, Jeevitha and others announced the awards in upcoming capital Amaravati, which the Andhra Pradesh government plans to develop as the new hub of the Telugu film industry.

The Best Actress awards will go to Anjali for "Geetanjali", Anushka Shetty for "Rudhramadevi" and Ritu Varma for "Pelli Choopulu".

"Legend", "Baahubali" and "Pelli Choopulu" were adjudged the Best Films for 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Naga Chaitanya won the award in the Best Supporting Actor category in 2014 for "Manam" while Allu Arjun won under the Best Character Actor category for "Rudhramadevi" in 2015.

Ramya Krishnan won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Sivagami and Rana Daggubati, who played Bhalladeva, won the Best Villain Award.