Tamil Nadu govt to organise grand film awards function

CHENNAI: A grand awards function would be organised to honour film artistes and technicians, Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa announced in the assembly on Friday. The chief minister made the announcement in response to DMK MLA Vagai Chandrasekar's statement that no awards function had been organised in the last five years of the AIADMK regime. "It was during the DMK regime that awards

for small screen actors and technicians were given," he said.

Reacting to the statement, Jayalalithaa said, "DMK failed to organise awards for the police force during the last three years of its previous regime. The awards function for the film fraternity was not organised for various reasons. To make up for that, a grand awards function will be organised soon."

Soon after the announcement by the chief ministers, the South Indian Artistes Association (SIAA) thanked her. In a press note, SIAA president Nasser said that the awards would serve as encouragement to actors and technicians.

"The chief minister is to lay the foundation stone soon for the new Nadigar Sangam headquarters building at T Nagar. The announcement of a grand awards function has doubled our happiness," he said.

Sivaji Ganesan statue

Vaagai Chandrasekar raised the issue of shifting late actor Shivaji Ganesan's statue from Kamarajar Salai to elsewhere in Chennai. In his maiden speech in the assembly, the DMK's Velachery MLA asked: "Why should the Sivaji statue on Marina be shifted to another place?"

Jayalalithaa, who intervened, said the government also did not want the statue to be shifted to some other place. An order from the Madras high court wanted the statue to be shifted elsewhere, she said.