I’m happy my films won eight national awards: Mammootty

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Mammootty missed out on the best actor award but the Malayalam superstar says he his happy that two films he acted in - “Kutty Srank” and “Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja” - had bagged eight national awards between them. “Kutty Srank” director Shaji N. Karun too said he was overjoyed.

“Honestly, I feel proud that the films I acted in have won eight awards. I feel really happy. You see my job is to act and I will keep on acting and try my best,” Mammootty told IANS over the phone from Shimoga in Karnataka, where he is shooting the film “Shikari”.

“Kutty Srank”, which is produced and distributed by Big Pictures, won five awards including the best feature; special jury; best costume designer award for Jayakumar as well as best cinematography and best screenplay (original) awards for Anjuli Shukla and P.F. Mathews-Harikrishna respectively.

Southern music maestro Illaiyaraja bagged the award for best background score for “Kerala Verma Pazhassi Raja “, which also won the best Malayalam film award. Resul Pookutty got the best sound designer for the same film.

“Kutty Srank” saw Shaji N. Karun and Mammootty join hands for the first time. And the filmmaker is overjoyed with the string of awards.

“I am very happy as a Malayali to have got this award. I have done four films and three of my films have won the National Award and I am happy,” he said.

The film is about the story of a character (Mammootty) told from three different perspectives — by three women he was involved with at different stages of his life.

Oscar Award winner Resul Pookutty said he is elated with the national recognition.

“The work I did for the film ‘Pazhasi Raja’ was different because the sound played a crucial role in the film,” said Pookutty.