Filmfare Awards, southern style!

It was a starry Friday night -- an auspicious one too -- when the stars of tinseltown descended in Hyderabad on Varalakshmi Vratham (Varalakshmi puja) for the 56th Filmfare Awards (South) at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC).

People queued up in large numbers to gain entry to this "strictly by invitation only" filmi extravaganza.

Stars like Tabu, Shriya Saran, Genelia D'Souza and many others inlcuding Jyothika (who came with husband Surya) were spotted at the glittering event.

Never mind if their costumes did not match up to the Oscar ones or weren't much talked about, their presence was enough to cause excitement.

A Filmfare Awards function without songs and dances is impossible and there were quite a few scintillating and foot-tapping numbers to enthrall the crowd.

Mumaith Khan kicked off the show with her sizzling act followed by others like Priyamani, Genelia, Sneha, Gauri Munjal, Sindhura Gadde and Shraddha Das who set the stage on fire with their medleys from different films.

One of the main highlights of the awards show was the presence of maestro K J Yesudas who won the award for the best male playback singer in Malayalam for the film Madambi.

Hyderabad's most glamorous couple Nagarjuna Akkineni and Amala presented the black lady to him. The couple even touched the singer's feet. In fact Nagarjuna said, 'I feel honoured to announce this name'. 

Yesudas in his characteristic way drove home the 'secular' ideals and belief in one god (to which he offered his "padaravindams".) He sang a Sanskrit sloka emphasising unity and urged one and all present to love each other, live happily and reach 'Him'.

One film that has become a classic in Tamil is Sasi Kumar's Subramaniapuram, which won Best Tamil film award. The whole gang was there to collect the award.

Gamyam in Telugu, Thirakkadha in Malayalam and Moggina Manasu in Kannada were adjudged the best films in their respective languages.

Most of the singers (Shreya Ghoshal, Naresh Iyer, Deepa Miriam, Karthik and Shwetha Pandit) who won awards also performed at the event. Deepa Miriam (who won for Kangal Irandal from Subramaniapuram) even asked if she should sing before doing just that.

Surya has had a dream run in 2008 and 2009. Last year, the Gowtham Vasudev Menon-directed Vaaranam Aayiram saw him depict three different stages in a man's life. He won the best actor award for his sensitive portrayal in Vaaranam Aayiram.

Allu Arjun won the best actor award for Paragu in Telugu, Lal for Thalappavu in Malayalam and Ganesh in Kannada for Gaalipata.

The anchors for the evening were Purab Kohli (of Rock On fame) and Sindhura Gadde first, and later Kriti Kharbanda, who tried their best to keep the spirit of the evening alive with their comments though it was very clear that Purab and Kriti weren't on home turf so they just couldn't get the names right.

When Nagarjuna announced the award to Yesudas he said on a lighter vein, "I hope what I say will not be as bad as what these guys are saying." He went on to pronounce Madambi correctly.

Young Parvathi's performance as a village girl in Poo has been appreciated by all and now, she has won the best actress trophy too.

Swati won the best actress trophy in Telugu for her performance in Ashta Chamma while Radhika Pandit won an award for Moogina Manasu. Priya Mani was awarded the best actress for Thirakkadha in Malayalam.  

The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Telugu lyricist Veturi Sundarama Murthy.

Ajmal, who gave a scinitillating performance in Mysskin's Anjathe won best supporting actor in Tamil while the best supporting actress award in Tamil went to Simran for Vaaranam Aayiram.

In Telugu, Allari Naresh won the best actor in a supporting role award for Gamyam while veteran actress Jayasudha bagged the best supporting actress award for Kotta Bangaru Lokam.

In Malayalam, the award for best actor in a supporting role went to Anoop Menon for Thirakkadha while the supporting actress award went to Sukanya in Innathe Chinthavishayam.

Finally, in Kannada, the best actor in a supporting role award went to Yash for Moggina Manasu while the best supporting actress award went to Shubha Poonja for Moggina Manasu.

Director M Sasi Kumar bagged the best director award for the Tamil film Subramaniapuram.

In Telugu, Krish (Radhakrishna) Jagarlamudi picked up his first Filmfare best director award for Gamyam while in Kannada, director Shashank won the best director award for Moggina Manasu. The director of Thirakkadha, Ranjith, was adjudged the Best Director in Malayalam.