The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by Filmfare magazine of The Times Group. When it was introduced in 1954, the Filmfare Awards initially only recognized achievements in the Hindi cinema. In 1964 the awards were extended to Telugu, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi languages.[1] Malayalam cinema was included in the awards in 1967 and Kannada cinema followed in 1970.

Filmfare Awards South
Current: 69th Filmfare Awards South
The Black Lady
Awarded forBest in South Indian cinema
Sponsored byMultiple
LocationIndia
CountryIndia
Presented byFilmfare
First awarded1963
Last awarded2024
Most awardsA. R. Rahman, Kamal Haasan
Most nominationsShreya Ghoshal
WebsiteFilmfare Awards
Television/radio coverage
NetworkStar India (2000–19, 2024–present)
Zee Entertainment Enterprises (2022)
RelatedFilmfare Awards
Filmfare Awards East
Filmfare Marathi Awards

Each industry is given its own set of creative awards in annual ceremonies that have predominantly been held in Chennai and Hyderabad. Before 1976, the Awards ceremony was held in Mumbai along with Hindi awards. From 1976, Southern region film awards were separated from Hindi and moved to Chennai.

History

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The awards were first given in 1953 and the ceremony used to be held along with Bollywood Filmfare Awards. The awards were being held in the Kalaivanar Arangam, Chennai in the early days.[2] Later the ceremony was shifted to the distinctive Music Academy.

In 1953, initially only the Hindi film industry was recognized [3] . In 1963 Awards extended to Best Picture in Telugu, Tamil, Bengali & Marathi, for the awards and from 1966 Malayalam films were added.[2] Kannada films became a part of the event in 1969.[2] In 1972 the awards were extended to Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director categories in all south Indian films.[4] The categories for Special Awards were introduced in the 1980s and Best Music Direction in 1990s. Lifetime Achievement Award – South was first given in 1983. Award for Best Male debut and Female debut were given irregularly during the same period. Categories for Best Male Playback Singing and Best Female Playback Singing were introduced in 1997. In 2002, awards for Best Supporting actors were given for Telugu and Tamil films. Since 2005, these awards were extended to the Malayalam and Kannada film industries. In the same year, additional categories such as Best Lyricist, Best Playback Singing were also introduced. Awards for Best Comedian were given from 2002 till 2006 and was discontinued later.

Statuette

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The statuette, depicting a woman whose arms uprise in a dance number with her fingers touching, is commonly referred to as "Black Lady" (or "The Lady in Black"). Originally designed by N.G. Pansare under the supervision of The Times of India's art director Walter Langhammer, it is generally made of bronze, its height is 46.5 cm and it weighs around five kg.[5]

To celebrate the 25th year of the awards, the statues were made in silver and to celebrate the 50th year the statues were made in gold.[6]

The Red Carpet

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The Red Carpet is a segment that takes place before the beginning of the actual ceremony.[7] This is where actors, actresses, producers, directors, singers, composers, and others that have contributed to Indian cinema are introduced. Hosts question the celebrities about upcoming performances and who they think deserves to take the Black Lady home.[8]

Superlatives

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Superlative Artist Record
Most individual wins A. R. Rahman 18 awards
Kamal Haasan
Most individual nominations Shreya Ghoshal 48 nominations
Most direction awards K. Viswanath 8 awards
K. Balachander
Most music direction awards A. R. Rahman 18 awards
Most acting awards – Male Kamal Haasan 17 awards
Most acting awards – Female Lakshmi 7 awards
Most playback singer awards – Male Karthik 6 awards
Most playback singer awards – Female K. S. Chithra 10 awards
Shreya Ghoshal

Records

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Most Awards for a film

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No. of Awards Film
9 Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana
RRR
8 Anniyan
Baahubali 2: The Conclusion
Soorarai Pottru

Most Awards for Best Director

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
8 K. Viswanath  
K. Balachander  

Most Awards for Best Actor

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
17 Kamal Haasan  

Most Awards for Best Actress

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
7 Lakshmi  

Most Awards for Best Actor – Critics

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
3 Dulquer Salmaan  

Most Awards for Best Actress – Critics

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
2 Nithya Menen  
Sruthi Hariharan  
Sai Pallavi  
Jyothika  
Aishwarya Rajesh  

Most Awards for Best Supporting Actor

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
4 Jagapathi Babu  
Achyuth Kumar  

Most Awards for Best Supporting Actress

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
5 Saranya Ponvannan  

Most Awards for Music Direction

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
18 A. R. Rahman  

Most Awards for Lyricist

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
6 Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry  

Most Awards for Male Singer

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
6 Karthik  

Most Awards for Female Singer

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
10 K. S. Chithra  
Shreya Ghoshal  

Most Awards for Cinematographer

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
4 K. K. Senthil Kumar

Most Awards for Choreographer

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
6 Prem Rakshith

Most Awards for Production Designer

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No. of Awards Recipient Image
4 Sabu Cyril  

Award Categories

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Creative awards

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Technical awards

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Special awards

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Retired awards

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Ceremonies

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References

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  1. ^ "11th Annual South Filmfare Awards Winners". 6 August 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "Magadheera,Nadodigal,Josh bag top honours at the Filmfare awards". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 9 October 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  3. ^ "1st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  4. ^ Film world, Volume 9. T.M. Ramachandran. 1973.
  5. ^ Pinto, Jerry (April 1997). "Tangy titbits from the Filmfare past". Filmfare. Archived from the original on 5 July 1998. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
  6. ^ "A golden glow for Filmfare". The Hindu. PTI. 28 January 2005. Archived from the original on 2 March 2005. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  7. ^ "66th Yamaha Fascino Filmfare Awards South 2019: These ladies scorched the red carpet in their stunning ensembles – Times of India". The Times of India. 23 December 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  8. ^ "66th Yamaha Fascino Filmfare Awards South: Ravishing Divas on the Red Carpet (PHOTOS)". The Times of India. 21 December 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Winners: 64th Jio Filmfare Awards 2017 (South)". Times of India. 19 June 2017.
  10. ^ "Winners of the 63rd Britannia Filmfare Awards (South)". filmfare.com. Archived from the original on 2 July 2016.
  11. ^ "Filmfare awards for South India – Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam & Kannada – Telugu Cinema". www.idlebrain.com.
  12. ^ "38th Annual Filmfare Awards Winners South Tamil". 11 July 2021.
  13. ^ https://archive.org/download/34th-annual-filmfare-south-ceremony/34th%20Annual%20Filmfare%20south%20Ceremony.jpg [bare URL image file]
  14. ^ https://archive.org/download/34th-filmfare-south-winners/34th%20Filmfare%20South%20winners.jpg [bare URL image file]
  15. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Rare Video of 27th Annual Film Fare Awards – 1980 (Voice Over – Radhika Sarathkumar)". YouTube. 23 February 2014.
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