Power couple Suriya and Jyotika turn heads at National Awards; Suriya dedicates the award to his fans

The actor played Nedumaaran, a character inspired by low-cost airline founder GR Gopinath in Soorarai Pottru

Suriya with his family at the National Awards

Suriya received the National Award for Best Actor for his character in Soorarai Pottru, from the President of Draupadi Murmu at the award ceremony held in New Delhi yesterday. Suriya was present at the event along with his entire family, including his wife, actress Jyotika, children, Dev and Diya, and his parents Sivakumar and Lakshmi. Pictures of the actor flaunting the citation along with the family have been doing the rounds on the internet. The actor dedicated the award to his fans and wrote on his social media handle, "Ever grateful Sudha! Hearty congratulations to all the winners. This one’s for you Anbana fans!! #SooraraiPottru #NationalFilmAwards (sic)." The family was seen in ethnic avatar and were grace personified at the event with Suriya donning pattu-veshti sattai. Jyotika looked elegant in a beautiful sari.

Suriya played Nedumaaran, a character inspired by low-cost airline founder GR Gopinath in Soorarai Pottru. The film bagged five awards at the ceremony, including that of Best Actress (Aparna Balamurali), Best Film (Sudha Kongara), Best Background Score ( GV Prakash) and Best Screenplay (Sudha Kongara and Shalini Usha Nair). Suriya then penned a lengthy letter thanking each and every member of the Soorarai Pottru team. He had also written, "The National Award gives me motivation to work harder and walk my talk...and give you all good films, now and always." He had also thanked his first director Vasanth in the letter. "I extend my gratitude to director Vasanth Sai and filmmaker-producer Mani Ratnam, who placed their faith in my acting abilities and gave me my first film, Nerukku Ner."

The film, directed by Sudha Kongara, had an ensemble cast, including Aparna Balamurali as the leading lady, Paresh Rawal, Urvashi, Poo Ramu, Mohan Babu, Karunas, Krishnakumar, Vivek Prasanna, Kaali Venkat, Vinodhini Vaidyanathan, Prakash Belawadi, Achyuth Kumar, to name a few. The plot was based on the book, Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey penned by Captain Gopinath himself. Cinematography was by Niketh Bommireddy and editing was by Sathish Suriya respectively. The film premiered on OTT as it was released during the peak of the pandemic. Soorarai Pottru was selected as one among the ten Indian films to be screened under the Best Foreign Film category at the 78th Golden Globe Awards. The film also made its mark in the Panorama Section of the Shanghai International Film Festival.

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