Filmfare Awards South

The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by Filmfare magazine of The Times Group. When it was introduced in 1954, the Filmfare Awards initially only recognized achievements in the Hindi cinema. In 1964 the awards were extended to Telugu, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi languages.^[1] Malayalam cinema was included in the awards in 1967 and Kannada cinema followed in 1970.

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Filmfare Awards South
Current: 69th Filmfare Awards South
The trophy presented to winners
Awarded for	Best in South Indian cinema
Sponsored by	Multiple
Location	India
Country	India
Presented by	Filmfare
First award	1963
Final award	2024
Most wins	A. R. Rahman, Kamal Haasan
Most nominations	Shreya Ghoshal
Website	Filmfare Awards
Television/radio coverage
Network	Star India (2000–19, 2024–present) Asianet (Malayalam) Star Maa (Telugu) Star Vijay (Tamil) Star Suvarna (Kannada) Zee Entertainment Enterprises (2022) Zee Kannada (Kannada) Zee Keralam (Malayalam) Zee Tamil (Tamil) Zee Telugu (Telugu)
Related	Filmfare Awards Filmfare Awards East Filmfare Marathi Awards

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Each industry is given its own set of creative awards in annual ceremonies that have predominantly been held in Chennai and Hyderabad. Before 1976, the ceremony was held in Mumbai along with Hindi segment. From 1976, the southern region segment were separated from Hindi and moved to Chennai and later to Hyderabad.

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History

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Perspective

The awards were first given in 1953 and the ceremony used to be held along with Hindi cinema's Filmfare Awards. The awards were being held in the Kalaivanar Arangam, Chennai in the early days.^[2] Later the ceremony was shifted to the distinctive Music Academy.

In 1953, initially only the Hindi film industry was recognized.^[3] In 1963 Awards extended to Best Picture in Telugu, Tamil, Bengali & Marathi, for the awards and from 1966 Malayalam films were added.^[2] Kannada films became a part of the event in 1969.^[2] In 1972 the awards were extended to Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director categories in all south Indian films.^[4] The categories for Special Awards were introduced in the 1980s and Best Music Direction in 1990s. Lifetime Achievement Award – South was first given in 1983. Award for Best Male debut and Female debut were given irregularly during the same period. Categories for Best Male Playback Singing and Best Female Playback Singing were introduced in 1997.

In 2002, awards for Best Supporting actors were given for Telugu and Tamil films. Since 2005, these awards were extended to the Malayalam and Kannada film industries. In the same year, additional categories such as Best Lyricist, Best Playback Singing were also introduced. Awards for Best Comedian were given from 2002 till 2006 and was discontinued later.

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Statuette

The statuette, depicting a woman whose arms uprise in a dance number with her fingers touching, is commonly referred to as "Black Lady" (or "The Lady in Black"). Originally designed by N.G. Pansare under the supervision of The Times of India's art director Walter Langhammer, it is generally made of bronze, its height is 46.5 cm and it weighs around five kg.^[5]

To celebrate the 25th year of the awards, the statues were made in silver and to celebrate the 50th year the statues were made in gold.^[6]

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The Red Carpet

The Red Carpet is a segment that takes place before the beginning of the actual ceremony.^[7] This is where actors, actresses, producers, directors, singers, composers, and others that have contributed to Indian cinema are introduced. Hosts question the celebrities about upcoming performances and who they think deserves to take the Black Lady home.^[8]

Superlatives

More information Superlative, Artist ...

Superlative	Artist	Record
Most individual wins	A. R. Rahman	18 awards
Kamal Haasan
Most individual nominations	Shreya Ghoshal	48 nominations
Most direction awards	K. Viswanath	8 awards
K. Balachander
Most music direction awards	A. R. Rahman	18 awards
Most acting awards – Male	Kamal Haasan	17 awards
Most acting awards – Female	Lakshmi	8 awards
Most playback singer awards – Male	Karthik	6 awards
Most playback singer awards – Female	K. S. Chithra	10 awards
Shreya Ghoshal