68th National Film Awards: Natyam, Colour Photo and Ala Vaikunthapurramulo bag top honours in Telugu

It has turned out to be another memorable year for Telugu cinema at the 68th National Film Awards (for the year 2020) announced today. Telugu films including Natyam, Colour Photo and Ala Vaikunthapurramulo won laurels across four categories in the feature film section. While Colour Photo was adjudged the Best Telugu film, Natyam won top honours across the Best choreography (Sandhya Raju) and makeup (TV Rambabu) categories. Ala Vaikunthapurramlo, for which S Thaman was the composer, had won in the Best music cateogry.

Colour Photo, directed by Sandeep Raj, featured Suhas, Sunil and Chandini Chowdary in the lead. The film produced by filmmaker Sai Rajesh under Amrutha Creations had released directly on the Telugu OTT platform aha. The story revolved around a timid youngster and his romantic interest, dealing with the various highs and lows in their relationship. The film addressed several issues like racism, patriarchy, mental health with sensitivity and was very well received in the Telugu digital space.

Natyam, which was written, directed, edited and filmed by Revanth Korukonda, starred Sandhya Raju, Rohit Behal, Kamal Kamaraju in key roles. The film, which had choreography and costume design by Sandhya Raju herself, deals with the travails faced by a dancer in a village and superstitions pertaining to the Kuchipudi dance form. The gripping drama, which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video, marked the on-screen debut of danseuse Sandhya Raju. 

Ala Vaikunthapurramulo, written and directed by Trivikram, was headlined by Allu Arjun and Pooja Hegde and produced by S Radha Krishna under Haarika and Hassine Creations. It is the story of a son realising his identity, who comes to the rescue of his family in the need of the hour. Several songs from the film attained popularity upon release, including Ramulo Ramula, Butta Bomma, Samajavaragamana, to name a few. The film is currently streaming on SunNXT and Netflix.

VN Aditya, popular director behind films like Manasantha Nuvve and Nenunnanu, was among the national awards' jury this year.