The star-studded Ananda Vikatan Cinema awards on Saturday saw the most popular celebrities from Tamil cinema walk away with one award after another.
Coimbatore, January 15
The star-studded Ananda Vikatan Cinema awards on Saturday saw the most popular celebrities from Tamil cinema walk away with one award after another.
While the awardees no doubt received a generous round of applause, there was one award presenter who perhaps outdid them all.
When anti-caste activist Kausalya Shankar walked on to the stage, she received a thunderous applause. The victim of honour killing requires no introduction. And here was Sathyaraj, who had insisted that she give him the award who received the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ award for his role in the sequel to “Bahubali”.
“When the organizers informed me that I have won the award, they also suggested the names of some senior actors from whom I could receive it. I, however, insisted that I will receive the award from Kausalya, who has overcome personal tragedy and is fighting for a noble cause. As actors, we only fight for social issues on screen. But these are people who fight on the ground,” said Sathyaraj, who donned the role of Periyar in one of his films, who stood for social justice, and classless, casteless society...
It may be recalled that Tirupppur court had recently convicted Kausalya’s father and 10 others for the honour killing and the murder of Kausalya’s husband Shankar, who was a Dalit.
The honour killing took place at Udamalaipettai in March 2016 in broad day light. Her father Chinnaswamy was sentenced to death by the Principal District by the Sessions Judge Alamelu Natarajan, which turned out to be a land mark judgment in Indian judicial history against honour killing.
Kausalya, who spoke at the event, said that she was honored to be present there and that she will continue her fight against caste discrimination.
Following the verdict, she had said that she would appeal against the acquittal of three of the accused, including her own mother.
Also, present on stage to hand over the award was Thirumurugan Gandhi, founder of the May 17 movement.
This is the fourth time that actor Sathyaraj is receiving an award from Ananda Vikatan. The actor has been very vocal about several social issues, including caste crimes, honour killing and manual scavenging.