From Prajwal Devaraj in Gentleman to Puneeth Rajkumar in Jackie and more: Award-winning performances to watch on OTT

Prajwal Devaraj is the latest entrant to the elite club of Karnataka State Film Awards Best Actor winners. He was named recently for his performance in the 2020 film, Gentleman. The Karnataka government had only months ago announced the awards for 2019, where Kiccha Sudeep got the honour. The actor had, however, declined it, urging the government to reward young new talent instead.

Here’s a look at a few award-winning performances that you can watch on OTT

Gentleman

On March 11, 2025, the Karnataka government announced the state film awards for 2020, adjudging Prajwal Devaraj as the Best Actor for his performance in Gentleman, a film directed by Jadeshaa K Hampi and produced by Guru Deshpande. The film follows Prajwal’s character, Bharath, who has to fight a rare sleeping disorder, while also figuring out why his niece was kidnapped and how to get her back.

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Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna

Director Naganna’s biopic of the revolutionary freedom fighter and warrior Sangolli Rayanna from Belagavi, who fought against the East India company, got Challenging Star Darshan a Best Actor award . The film was the highest grossing Kannada movie of 2012.

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Check out these 8 must-watch Darshan films 

Jackie

Late Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar’s second state award came for Jackie, directed by Suri. The first report about the action comedy was that audiences did not like how Puneeth had been presented, as he was not in his usual stylish avatar. His character, Janakiram was deemed too local, but over time, audiences warmed up to it and made the film a big hit.

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Aptharakshaka

Sahasa Simha Vishnuvardhan won a Best actor award posthumously for his performance in the sequel of Apthamitra, directed by P Vasu. Aptharakshaka was Vishnuvardhan’s 200th film and had Vimala Raman, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, among others, on the cast.

Streaming on: JioHotstar

Milana

Director Prakash Veer’s Milana got Puneeth Rajkumar his first state best actor award. The film brought Malayalam actress Parvathy Thiruvothu to Kannada cinema. It was a massive commercial success and had a 500-day run in theatres.

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Also read: 12 times Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar brought a popular actress to Kannada cinema 

Duniya

After a string of uncredited and unnamed characters in films since 2004’s Ranga SSLC, Vijay Kumar made the transition to lead hero with Suri’s Duniya. The film was a box office success and gave Vijay his first state award. It also led to both Vijay and Suri being known as Duniya Vijay and Duniya Suri for the longest time. Since turning director with Salaga, Vijay has dropped the moniker.

Streaming on: JioHotstar

Chigurida Kanasu

Based on the 1951 novel of the same name by Shivaram Karanth, Chigurida Kanasu is leading man Shivarajkumar’s favourite film. Although it was not a major box success, the film is considered one of the finest in the history of Kannada cinema. Shivarajkumar won a best actor award for the film, which is also the inspiration for Shah Rukh Khan’s Swades.

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