‘I Hope It's Given To Deserving Artists’: Kiccha Sudeep Inaugurates Nandi Awards

The Kannada film industry is all set to revive the Nandi Awards this year. The award ceremony will be held in the month of December; and its preparations have begun. The Nandi Film Awards 2023 was inaugurated by actor Kiccha Sudeep recently in Bengaluru, where he expressed his gratitude and appreciation for the program. Speaking on the occasion, Kiccha Sudeep said: “Good luck to the founder. I stopped going to the award program in 2003–2004. There is another reason for that. However, I hope that this award will be given to deserving artists.” He believes that many artists are struggling to receive recognition and an award for their work; hence, such people should be awarded. Just like the name of the award ‘Nandi’, the program should also be as pure, he said during the inauguration. Kiccha Sudeep also said that there is a dearth of award shows in the Karnataka film industry that one can look up to. He wishes that the Nandi Awards turn out to be different.

The reason the award is called Nandi is because it is the vahana of Lord Shiva, a powerful symbol for the people in Kannada. The previous president of the Karnataka Board of Film Commerce, BM Harish; producer Nithyananda Prabhu, Padmavathy Chandrashekhar and Anita Reddy are the founders of the Nandi film award. BM Girish, Harshita, Nandita and Ashok are the directors.

Nandi awards will be given to artists from the Kannada film industry. It will give importance to Kannada movies and regional languages such as Tulu, Kodava, Konkani, Bari and Bhanjar. Awards will also be given for literature, print and visual media as well. One of the founders of the Nandi Awards said that more than 50 categories of talent will be recognised and awarded.

It was realised that Karnataka needed its own awarding platform, through which they could recognise their own talent and try to add themselves on the back for the achievements. After realising and discussing all of this, the board decided to kickstart the Nandi Awards. The ceremony will be held on December 6 at the Orion Mall in Bengaluru and the awards will be given in 50 categories. The extravagant event will be attended by the who’s who of the film industry and political elites as well.