"MOHANLAL WAS SURPRISED THAT I WAS GETTING THE AWARD FOR BEST CRITIC"

G Dhananjayan, popular producer, columnist, writer and Founder-Dean of BOFTA was bestowed with the Best Critic award at the recently held 64th National Film Awards. He shares with us some interesting information on the same.

Best Industry Analyst
Everybody thinks critic means film reviewers, but it could be for film criticism or industry analysis or reviews. I come under the category of the Best Industry Analyst. I wrote 26 articles last year, ten from those were selected and they were compared with the other entries. They felt that my analysis was different and from an insider point of view. The citation said- He has given practical and possible solution according to every problem listed.

The event
The event was beautifully organized. They have done perfect rehearsals. It was a 100-minute program, started at 6 PM and ended at 7.40 PM. I was very happy that I was getting an award on the day when a veteran like K Viswanath was getting his Dada Saheb Phalke award. Once you go to the National Award, you are not seen as someone from Tamil cinema or any other language. Respect and appreciations are uniform. It was such a cherishable moment to have gotten the award from the President.

I felt honored
I felt happy and honored to receive the golden medal. Basically, the writers for the best films and best directors are given the gold medals. Everybody else gets silver medals. Since I was getting the gold medal, I was made to sit in the front row along with noted celebs like Mohan Lal and Akshay Kumar.

Mohanlal
I was seated next to Mohanlal. He was so surprised that I was getting the award for Best Critic because he thought I was there in the capacity of a producer. He was quite amused. I shared my picture with him and it was trending that day.