The Telangana government on Saturday announced that actor Naga Chaitanya had been chosen as the Best Actor for 2025 for his performance in 'Thandel', while actress Rashmika Mandanna had been chosen as the Best Actress for her performance in 'The Girlfriend'.
It may be recalled that Naga Chaitanya had delivered a captivating performance as the captain of a shipping vessel in director Chandoo Mondeti's 'Thandel', while Rashmika had powerfully portrayed a girl breaking free from a toxic relationship in director Rahul Ravindran's 'The Girlfriend'.
On Saturday, the Telangana government announced the list of winners of the prestigious Gaddar State Film Awards for 2025. Telangana Film Development Corporation Chairman Dil Raju announced the award winners for 2025 at a press conference.
'Thandel', which fetched Naga Chaitanya the award for Best Actor, also won the award for Best Film on National Integrity. Anil Ravipudi's popular blockbuster film 'Sankranthiki Vasthunam' won the Award for Best Entertainment Film. The award for Best Film went to 'Raju Weds Rambhai', while 'Dhandoraa' and 'The Pre Wedding Show' won the awards for the second and third best films respectively.
The Best Debut Feature Film award went to the superhit film 'Little Hearts' while the Teja Sajja-starrer 'Mirai' won awards for Best Special Effects, Best Editor (Sreekar Prasad) and Best Cinematography(Karthik Ghattamneni). 'Court', one of the most powerful films of last year which went on to emerge a superhit as well, was adjudged the Best Social Message Film.
Actor Shivaji has been chosen for the Award of Best Supporting Actor, while actress Bhumika has been chosen as the Best Supporting Actress. The Best Actor (Jury) award went to Chaitu Jonnalagadda for his performance in 'Raju Weds Rambai' while the Best Actress (Jury) award went to Ananthika for her performance in '8 Vasanthalu'.
The Special Jury Hero award went to Roshan Meka for his performance in the period drama 'Champion'. 'Champion' also won awards for Best Art Direction (Thota Tharani), Best Action Choreography (Peter Hein), Best Dance Choreography (Aata Sandeep) and Best Costume Design ( Chandrakant Sonawane and Ajay Kumar Nambala).
A list of eight special awards were also announced on the occasion. Megastar Chiranjeevi won the NTR National Award while Ashwini Dutt won the Nagireddy – Chakrapani Award. Actor, director, producer and politician Kamal Haasan is to be presented the Paidi Jairaj Award while veteran actress Jayasudha is to be honoured with the Akkineni Award.
Suddala Ashok Teja will be presented the C. Narayana Reddy (CINARE) Award and R Narayana Murthy, the Kantha Rao Award. The B N Reddy Award will go to one of the icons of Telugu cinema, Sangeetam Srinivasa Rao, and the Raghupathi Venkaiah Award will be presented to Ramesh Prasad.