New chairman elected for State Awards committee

National Award-winning director Kesari Haravoo has been elected as the new chairman of the State film awards committee. The election took place after C.R. Simha�demitted the chairman’s�seat since Mathad Mathad Mallige, which is�participating in the competition, features Simha among its actors.

There is a rule that only a director can head the committee. Since there was no time to elect a new person,�two directors, Kesari Haravoo and Ananth P. Raju, who were already in the committee as members, were considered for the post of the chairman. In the end, Haravoo was elected unanimously.

The committee members have started reviewing the films from 26th December, 2008. The other members of the committee include director Anand P. Raju, cinema journalist K.S. Vasu, theatre personality Malathi Sudhir, popular singer Rathnamala Prakash, cameraman Ashok Naidu and Vijayakumar (producer of Simhadriya Simha).