51st Kerala State Film Awards Winners: Jayasurya, Anna Ben, The Great Indian Kitchen win big

The 51st Kerala State Film Awards was announced today by Saji Cheriyan, the minister of Kerala Film Development Corporation and Chalachitra Academy. The announcement has packed a few surprises as well as results that were expected in advance. 

The top award was bagged by Jayasurya (Best Actor), Anna Ben (Best Actress), The Great Indian Kitchen (Best Film), Sidhartha Siva (Best Director) and Ayyappanum Koshiyum (Best Popular Film).

About 80 films that were released in the year 2020 competed for the awards in the various categories.

The jury was headed by renowned actress-filmmaker Suhasini Maniratnam, who was followed by a number of popular names from the film industry.

Kannada director P Sheshadri, filmmaker Bhadran, music director Mohan Sithara, sound designer M Harikumar, cinematographer C K Muraleedharan and critic-screenwriter N Sasidharan were other members of this year's jury.

This was the first state award announcement after the introduction of a revised set of rules. Meanwhile, critic Dr P K Rajashekaran has also been appointed to the jury as the chairman of a special committee, to decide the literary awards.

These are the winners of Kerala State Film Awards 2021:

Best Film - The Great Indian Kitchen 

Best Second Film - Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam

Best Director - Sidhartha Siva (Ennivar)

Best Actor - Jayasurya (Vellam)

Best Actress - Anna Ben (Kappela)

Best Character Actor - Sudheesh (Ennivar, Bhoomiyile Manohara Swakaryam)

Best Character Actress - Sreerekha (Veyil) 

Best Composer - M Jayachandran (Sufiyum Sujatayum)

Best Original Screenplay - Jeo Baby (The Great Indian Kitchen) 

Best Playback Singer (Male) - Shahabaz Aman 

Best Playback Singer (Female) - Nithya Mammen 

Best Lyricist - Anwar Ali 

Best Cinematography - Chandru Selvaraj (Kayattam)

Best Editor - Mahesh Narayanan (C U Soon)

ALSO READ: Exclusive! Anna Ben: There’s a lot of learning and unlearning happening with each of my films 

Best Art Director - Santhosh Raman (Pyali, Malik) 

Best Sync Sound - Adarsh Joseph Cherian (Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam)

Best Popular Film - Ayyappanum Koshiyum 

Best Debutant Director - Muhammad Musthafa (Kappela)

Best Child Artist (Male) - Niranjan S (Kasiminte Kadal)

Best Child Artist (Female) - Aravya Sharma (Pyali)

Best Children’s Movie - Bonami