CHENNAI: Tamil films Tourist Family and Bison Kaalamadan emerged among the notable winners at this year's SIIMA Awards, with Tourist Family securing six awards in the Critics' Choice categories and Dhruv Vikram winning the Best Actor award for his performance in Bison Kaalamadan.
The film won six awards in the Critics' Choice categories - Best Film, Best Debut Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Male Playback Singer and Best Comedian.
Abishan Jeevinth won Best Debut Director, while Sasikumar and Simran received the Best Actor and Best Actress awards respectively. Yogi Babu won Best Comedian, while Vijay Yesudas won Best Male Playback Singer for the song Iragey.
Directed by debutant Abishan Jeevinth, Tourist Family stars Sasikumar and Simran and revolves around Sri Lankan Tamil refugees seeking shelter in Tamil Nadu. The film blends comedy, family sentiment and humanity.
Sean Roldan composed the music, Aravind Viswanathan handled cinematography and Bharath Vikraman was the editor. The film stars Sasikumar, Simran, Yogi Babu, Mithun Jai Shankar, Kamalesh, MS Bhaskar and Ramesh Thilak, among others.
Tourist Family was jointly produced by Nazareth Pasilian, Mahesh Raj Pasilian and Yuvaraj Ganesan under Million Dollar Studios and MRP Entertainment.
Dhruv Vikram won the SIIMA Best Actor award for his performance in Bison Kaalamadan, marking the third film of his career to receive the honour.
Directed by Mari Selvaraj, the film sees Dhruv portray a kabaddi player from rural Tamil Nadu who overcomes preconceived notions, violence and family obstacles in pursuit of his dream of becoming a renowned kabaddi player. His performance involved changes in appearance, body language and acting style to suit the character.
Anupama Parameswaran, director Ameer, director Lal, Pasupathy and Rajisha Vijayan play key roles in the film.
Bison Kaalamadan was produced by Sameer Nair, Deepak Segal and Aditi Anand of Applause Entertainment, along with Pa Ranjith of Neelam Studios. It was produced by Ranjith and others.
Following the SIIMA recognition, Dhruv Vikram is currently working on his next project, the action film Jacky - No Retakes Allowed, directed by Karan Arvind Kumar and produced by Mythri Movie Makers.