Maestro ilaiyaraaja news & titbits

**Gregorysab** · 10th March 2012, 11:14 AM

Guys, this is a boring topic, now that National Awards are done with and we know that Raaja didnt get it. So whats the point of "this album deserved better" kind of talk. C'mon guys, bring some good news.. like discuss about Neethane Enthan Ponvasantham's music. any release date?

**Google Adsense** · 10th March 2012 11:14 AM

**Sureshs65** · 10th March 2012, 11:45 AM

The initial part of this video explains all feeling about the National Award:

**teja** · 10th March 2012, 11:58 AM

National Award Jury member Satish Kasetty gives out a bizarre & lame reason for Sri Rama Rajyam losing out in Music category. According to him, SRR's music was in the shortlist in the Best Music/Background score category, but the preview theater used by the Jury team can not play DTS, it can just play Mono sound. As a result, jury couldn't feel the impact of SRR's music! Phew!

**rajsekar** · 10th March 2012, 10:36 PM

teja - Excellent follow-up. I read Satyanarayana a.k.a Satish Kasetty (Director of Best Film on Social Issues "Hope" in 2007) statement which reads as follows -
As many as 18 Telugu films, including Sri Rama Rajyam and Rajanna which are widely considered as two of the best films of 2011, were in contention in various awards. Did the awards committee snub Telugu films this year? Satish Kasetty, one of the jury members, says emphatically, “The committee did not snub our films. Fact is we don’t make quality films and even the best of our films don’t match the standards set by other award winnings films.” Elucidating further, he adds, “The jury was looking for films which had good content and how well it was dealt with. We weren’t even looking for any message oriented films. Honestly, Telugu filmmakers are caught up in their own world. We are content with the response from our audience and the box-office performance.”

Where did you read about the Preview Theatre news? I would appreciate if you can post the link here. I am going to file a formal protest letter to Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry and Director of Film Festivals (DFF). Their email addressess are publicly available. Why not file a protest email with President of India? Anyone can write to the President on the website. We live in a democratic country and all citizens have the right to express their concerns to the authorities. Many of you may say that this is not a cause worth writing, but let's bring it to the attention of Jury members. If I&B Ministry and DFF get enough protest emails, who knows, they may want to review the selections once again? Let's do our share of expressing our concerns. Do it on Facebook and Forums. The artists who worked so hard on Sri Rama Rajyam deserve their due recognition.

**SoftSword** · 10th March 2012, 11:39 PM

**teja** · 11th March 2012, 02:17 AM

@rajsekar
Here's the link where he mentions the issue Mono and DTS:

I don't get it. How can they disqualify a movie, if their preview theater is not fully equipped to play latest sound. IR went all the way to Hungary to record/mix the sound.. and this is what he gets. What a pity!

Lodging a protest is fine. But I doubt if they would review the selections once again. (Unless SRR's producer takes some drastic measures)

BTW, that director Satish Kasetty sounds so arrogant in that interview. It feels like his presence did more harm to Sri Rama Rajyam.

**rajsekar** · 11th March 2012, 04:15 AM

Teja - Thanks for the link. Usually International Film Festivals and National Film Awards screening use Siri Fort Auditorium complex which has four theatres. The smallest one seats around 65 people. I am not sure about the sound quality of these auditoriums. Common sense tells me that films that are judged under technical categories - Songs, Background Score, Editing, Audiography, should be screened in a state-of-the art sound facility theatre. In fact SRR producer Yalamanchili is furious. Read the statement from "gulte.com".

A film-circuit that produces highest number of films in this Indian country is blatantly ignored at the National Film Awards. While critics are quoting this as a shame upon Telugu politicians in power, the government has not opened its mouth yet. The Government of India should and must award a Telugu film under 'Best Regional Film in Telugu' category according to the 'Schedule VIII of the Constitution'. However, like last year, the government ignored picking up a best film from Telugu circuit for 2011 too. The whole of Tollywood expected an appreciation at National Awards for Bapu's cinematic wonder 'Sriramarajyam'. More than feeling disappointed, Tollywood is taking this as an insult. 'Are our MPs and MLAs sleeping? Are we not making entire Indian film industry proud with our movies?' questioned Yalamanchili Saibaba, the producer of Sriramarajyam. He stated that this is purely an insult and we all should feel pity for our position and asked state ministers at the Centre to check with the Central Government about this dejection. Off course, our politicians are too busy to raise their voice against this oppression as they just want poll-results but not the 'pride' of Telugus. Has Lord Sriram become such a touchy subject in India?

Tamil films too had the same fate for several years. Notable omissions were - MS Viswanathan for "Thillana Mohanambal" and "Apoorva Ragangal". "Sindhu Bhairavi" was the second Tamil film to win Best Music Award in 1986 (Raaja's second) after KV Mahadevan won for "Kandhan Karunai" in 1968. Anyway, I am doing whatever is possible to highlight this glaring omission in 2012 - emails have started flying out. Let's wait and watch.

**krish244** · 11th March 2012, 08:45 AM

An article about "National awards" in THE HINDU:

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article2981150.ece

thanks,

Krishnan

**app_engine** · 11th March 2012, 09:12 AM

rajsekar,

Small nitpick - thiilAnA mOhanAmbAL had KVM's music & not MSV

**rajsekar** · 11th March 2012, 10:25 AM

app_engine-Thanks for catching the mistake; realized after posting the response. Krishnan - thanks for the link; had read the review. Whatever be the limitations that these jury members quote, there is no excuse to omit/ snub the hard work done by thousands of folks who toil in the film industry. As most of us know, the entire award selection process is flawed. The big mystery with the award announcements are the missing names of nominated films and runners up. All media awards worldwide (Oscar, BAFTA, Cannes, Grammy, Golden Globe, CMA. Filmfare, etc) announce the nominated films, except for our Indian system. We all can wish that year 2013 will be different - "Dhoni" not out!!!