TN govt crowns Dhanush Best Actor

Actor Dhanush, who has won the Tamil Nadu Government's State Film Award for Best Actor for the year 2018 for his performance in director Vetri Maran's cult classic Vada Chennai, has now penned a note of gratitude in which he has called the award, "a true honour".

Taking to his X timeline soon after the Tamil Nadu government announced the State Film Awards for the year 2018, Dhanush wrote, "I sincerely thank the Government of Tamil Nadu for conferring upon me the State Award for Vada Chennai. It is a true honor. My heartfelt congratulations to all the other awardees as well."

Interestingly, Vada Chennai, for which Dhanush won the Best Actor, swept the awards for the year, winning in seven categories. The film fetched Samuthirakani the award for Best Villain for the year. Director and actor Ameer won the Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film. The film also fetched Santhosh Narayanan the award for Best Music Director and Velraj the award for Best Cinematographer.

Aishwarya Rajesh, who played the female lead in 'Vada Chennai', won the Award for Best Actress (Special Prize) for her performances in both 'Vada Chennai' and 'Kanaa'.

Vishnu Vishal, who won the Best Actor (Special Prize) for his performance in the superhit crime thriller 'Ratsasan' for the same year, took to his X timeline to pen a post of gratitude.

He wrote, "My first ever award on the same day I complete 17 years in the industry. Sincere thanks to the Government of Tamil Nadu for the Best Actor - Special Jury Award for #Ratsasan. It is an honour and for a film that I will always cherish. Thank you for all the love that you keep giving me."

The first place in the Best Picture category went to director Mari Selvaraj's 'Pariyaerum Perumal'. The second and the third places went to director Pandiraj's 'Kadaikutty Singam' and director Premkumar's '96'.

For the unaware, the Tamil Nadu government, late on Thursday night, announced the State Film Awards for seven years (from 2016 to 2022). Each award winner will be presented a gold medal, a memento and a certificate. The awards are to be presented at a function that is to be held at Kalaivanar Arangam on February 13 this year.