"Telugu films are being made lavishly but no film has substance to consider for an award," remarked National Film Awards jury chairperson Sai Paranjape.

Thanks for the compliment madam. But is this an issue worth worrying?

A popular local television channel presented an interesting case on this.

It said huge lobbying happens at the awards and Telugus are very poor in this art, which affected fate of a number of good films on the national platform.

Classics like Sankarabharanam, Sagarasangamam and Swati Mutyam didn't get their full due, though they bagged a few national awards. Kamal Hassan didn't receive national award for his roles in Telugu movies Sagarasangamam and Swatimutyam (India's official entry to the Oscars in 1986).

Prakash Raj, the best actor for 2007, was brilliant as a factionist in the Telugu movie Antahpuram, but alas! the committee wasn't interested in his performance. A similar role in a Bengali, Tamil or a Malayalam movie would have won him an award for sure.

This is one side of the coin. On the other side we have commercial and entertainers dominating the Telugu industry. Social themes too are narrated in a typical filmi style with songs, dance, fights and comedy sprinkled across the movie. In the process, messed up a lot of good stories resulting in sub-standard and illogical movies.

The situation has also to do with the tastes of audience partially. Patronage for commercial cinema is strong and unbelievable. Commercial heroes enjoy demi-god status and have huge, loyal fan base, forcing them to make movies to satisfy their rooters.

Classic example of this is Chiranjeevi's Rudraveena released in 1988. Directed by Balachandar, the movie dealt with many burning social issues then. Chiranjeevi, who was already the biggest star of Telugu cinema then, portrayed the role of a reformist and his character was devoid of any commercial lineaments.

The result: Rudraveena won a few national awards and was acclaimed as one of the best Telugu films ever made. But commercially, the movie was a disaster at the box office forcing Chiranjeevi to return to his domain - mainstream cinema.

General audience here cheer pure entertainment. Native comedy and clean family entertainers take top honors while racy songs and action sequences follow suit. Of late, movies providing grand visual experience are being embraced with open arms.

Films like Pokiri, Jalsa, Magadheera and Arundhati have generated millions of rupees while movies without commercial gloss have more often faced outright rejections.

The audience here encourage movies that are technically superior, contain good humor and present novel themes. Language is no barrier and that is the reason a few good Tamil and Malayalam movies (dubbed version) enjoy a decent run here as well.

As a common man and with the little knowledge I have regarding the award-winning movies, I would run away from most of them. I beleive, heroes or movies should entertain and recharge us whenever we are down and bored. I would opt for a racy movie like Pokiri to get reloaded than a national award winning movie.

PS: The much coveted Oscars too were on the brink of losing their identity this year, forcing them to nominate and award some trophies to commercial flicks like Slumdog Millionaire.

Viewership is minimal for national awards while filmfare and even the Andhra government's Nandi Award attract larger eye balls.

The Nandi awards (for 2005 and 2006) ceremony held today at the LB stadum resembled more like a film actors-led election campaign for the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh. Most of the the recipients were staunch supports of the ruling Congress government and they have been bestowed upon with many invaluable assets by the State Government.

The timing of the awards is just before the impending elections and a few sops have been offered to the film industry. The venue has been shifted from Lalitha Kala Thoranam to L.B.Stadium to allow superstar Krishna and Mahesh Babu's supporters to pour in. In fact, this was touted as political debut for Mahesh. Of course, Mahesh has said a big no to politics and even warned of skipping the event in case of any political connection.

Now the real story. The winners Nagarjuna and Mahesh Babu, have a great filmy flashback attached to this. Nagarjuna has promised to support Congress in exchange for permission to raise a commercial complex in Annapurna Studios in Jubliee Hills. As the Government rule prevents them from using the land for other than running the studio, Nagarjuna turned to the ruling government for the favor. Mahesh Babu's father Krishna has been a Congress supporter for long and Congress has been desperate to pull superstar Mahesh into politics to negate Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna. Krishna has been awarded NTR lifetime achievement. Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, a popular comedian and strong Congress I supporter, was on the dias right from the beginning. He was offered about 7 acres of land to construct a religious sanctuary by the government. It's reported that the land is under dispute.

With no actor from the Nandamuri tribe or and only Nagendra Babu from Chiranjeevi family present at the event, it turned out to be Congress show all the way.

PS: The whole event was shabbily organized. The anchor seemed to be in a hurry to rush back home to take his wife out for dinner.