Suriya-starrer Soorarai Pottru wins in five categories at 68th National Film Awards

Soorarai Pottru, the 2020 Tamil film starring Suriya and Aparna Balamurali proved to be the biggest winner at the 68th National Film Awards, which are being held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi. Films released in 2020 are being considered for this year’s awards. While the results of the 68th National Film Awards were declared on July 22, 2022, the ceremony was held today, September 30.

Soorarai Pottru won the National Film Award in five different categories- Best Feature Film, Best Actor for Suriya, Best Actress for Aparna Balamurali, Best Background Score for Prakash Kumar, and Best Screenplay for Sudha Kongara and Shalini Usha Nair. Kongara is also the film’s director.

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Released on November 12, 2020, Soorarai Pottru (which translates into praise the brave) tells the story of a man called Maara, who despite hailing from a remote Indian village, dreams of launching his own private airline. The challenges he needs to surmount on his road to success are what the story is about. Reports suggest that a Hindi remake of the film is under production. While co-screenwriter Kongara is directing the film, Suriya is working as the producer.

The plot of Soorarai Pottru is based on the book Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey, written by G.R. Gopinath, who is the founder of the airline company Simplify Deccan. Kongara had the idea of making this film while working as an assistant director for Mani Ratnam on the sets of Raavanan.

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This is the fourth feature film by Kongara. She has earlier made Drohi, Irudhi Suttru, and Guru, which is the latter’s Tamil remake. Suriya had agreed to work on the film after meeting Kongara at the launch of Irudhi Suttru. The actor was so impressed by the filmmaker’s narration and script, that he decided to come on board as a producer. It was Suriya who approached Sikhya Entertainment, the producer of movies like The Lunchbox and Masaan, to fund Soorarai Pottru.