OTTplay Awards 2025: Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar honoured for Pioneering Contributions to New Age Cinema

Over the last 8 years, Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar has tirelessly worked towards making the banner that she co-founded with her husband, the late Puneeth Rajkumar, as the platform to spot, nourish and nurture new talent in the Kannada industry, both behind and in front of the camera. 10 films later and more to come from the banner, Ashwini as the torchbearer, continues to steer it in the direction Puneeth had envisioned.

Recognizing her efforts, Ashwini was presented with the award for Pioneering Contributions to New Age Cinema at the OTTplay Awards 2025 in Mumbai on March 22, 2025. Taking the stage after receiving her award from Helly Shah, Ashwini said, “It feels great to be recognized. This award only encourages Kannada film industry. I hope we continue doing that."

For the third time in a row, Kannada cinema has been recognized for the work in pushing the envelope and helping cinema evolve as an art form. Previous winners include the Shetty trio of Rishab, Raj and Rakshit.

As the youngest daughter-in-law in the Rajkumar family, Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar was highly influenced by her mother-in-law, the late Parvathamma Rajkumar, who handled the operations of the family film production and distribution wings, which had projects featuring Dr Rajkumar, Shivarajkumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar, as well.

So, by the time Puneeth decided to take the family legacy ahead and launch his own banner, PRK Productions, he knew it was in safe hands with his wife, Ashwini. Launched in 2017, the banner’s maiden venture was the neo-noir thriller Kavaludaari, directed by Hemanth M Rao, followed by Mayabazar 2016 and then Law and French Biriyani, with the latter two being a part of a 5-film deal with Amazon Prime Video. One Cut Two Cut, Family Pack and Man of the Match followed on the OTT platform.

2022’s Gandhada Gudi, which was Puneeth’s dream project and released on his first death anniversary – a documentary that had the actor join Wild Karnataka maker Amoghavarsha in traversing the lengths and breadths of the state and introducing audiences to the beauties of the state – is one of the best works from the house of PRK Productions to date.

With 2023’s Aachar & Co, Ashwini introduced filmmaker Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy and then in O2, she gave the industry the director duo Raghav Nayak and Prashant Raj, in keeping with the banner’s objective of supporting and bringing in fresh faces and ideas into the Kannada film industry. Up next, Ashwini has joined hands with KRG Studios for Yuva Rajkumar’s sophomore project, Ekka.

OTTplay Awards 2025 is co-presented by Real Juice and Kuhl and powered by Stock Gro. The marquee event, held in partnership with HT City, has Flipkart Spoyl as the exclusive style partner, D Pauls as the travel partner, Amante as the premium lingerie partner, Propshop as the real estate partner, Aussie Lamb and Krishinet Fiber as the special partners, UDigital as the ISP and iPTV partner and Hyperlink as the event partner.