The 48th Kerala state film awards were presented by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan at a function held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
Actor Mohanlal was the chief guest of the ceremony.
Earlier, many artists had opposed inviting the superstar for the function. A petition submitted to the chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had pointed out that inviting a chief guest other than the CM for the function would be an insult to the award-winners.
While Mohanlal received applauds from the audience, he also had to face some awkward moments.
Actor Alencier Ley Lopez, who won the award for the best character artiste, stood at his seat and made gestures like holding a gun and firing at Mohanlal while he was delivering the speech. It was not clear if this was a novel protest by him.
By the time Alencier tried to reach the stage, the police and other guards gently dissuaded the award winning actor.
Mohanlal chose to remain calm and gave a smile in between his speech. “Thiruvananthapuram is a place very close to me. In fact, I made my acting debut with a scene shot in one of the lanes here. I have been part of the industry since 40 years and so do I need anyone's permission to attend a function honouring my friends,” he said.
“When actors like Indrans were honoured, I only wanted to improve my performance and be on a par with them,” he added.
The function began with a tribute to former Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, who passed away on Tuesday. Karunanidhi was also a noted script writer.
