Jay Nesh, Manjari bag coveted most popular personality awards at Pradhana Vizha 2021

SINGAPORE - Vasantham personalities Jaya Ganesh Isuran and Manjari bagged the much coveted Most Popular Male and Female Artiste titles at this year's socially distanced version of Pradhana Vizha.

The 44-year-old, who is better known as Jay Nesh, also took home the award for best actor in a comedy role for his part in Adukku Veetu Annasamy while Manjari was also named best actress in a supporting role for her part in Bommalatam.

The 17th edition of the biennial awards ceremony, which celebrates the best in local Indian television, was held at The Theatre at Mediacorp last Saturday.

Mediacorp's Eaglevision production arm emerged as the biggest winner that night, scooping up seven wins in total.

Its wins in the programme categories were Best Entertainment Series for Music Junction; Best Entertainment Special (Single) for Amarkala Deepavali 2019; and Best Drama for Uyire.

Its wins in the performance and creative categories were Best Host (Entertainment) for Saravanan Ayyavoo at Amarkala Deepavali 2019; Best Direction (Other Genres) for Rowthiram directed by Vel Murugan; Best Original Screenplay for Arivaan written by Kumaran Sundram and Raja Tamilmaran; and Best Videography (Drama) also for Arivaan, by Gopal Kandasamy.

Meanwhile, Mediacorp's Oli 968 picked up the inaugural Best Radio Programme award for Uravugal Thodarkathai by Gunalan Morgan.

A special Lifetime Achievement award was presented to veteran radio producer and presenter P. Krishnan, 89, whose long and illustrious career has spanned various aspects of broadcasting, from news-reading and disk-jockeying to acting and directing.

He received the Cultural Medallion in 2008 for his contributions to Tamil literature and Tamil language.

Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam presented him with the award in a pre-recorded segment.

Co-hosted by Karthikeyan Somasundaram, Haleema, Udaya Soundari and Ayyavoo, the awards show also featured song-and-dance performances by the likes of singers Ebi Shankara and Suthasini Rajendran and local dance troupe, Rameshwara.

• Best actor in a leading role - drama series: Mathialagan (Rowthiram)

• Best actress in a leading role - drama series: Eswari Gunasagar (Kalaba Kadhala)

• Best actor in a supporting role - drama series: Varman Chandra Mohan (Romeo & Juliet)

• Best actress in a supporting role - drama series: Manjari (Bommalatam)

• Best actor/actress in a negative role - drama series: Stephen Zechariah (Avathaaram)

• Best actor/actress in a comedy role - drama series: Jaya Ganesh Isuran (Adukku Veetu Annasamy)

• Best newcomer - drama series: Veronica Shaw (Yaar 2)

• Best host - entertainment: Saravanan Ayyavoo (Amarkala Deepavali 2019)

• Best host - info: Udaya Soundari (Udayam 2)

• Shining star: Harjeet (Neo)

• Best original singer: Pavithra Shreedharan Nair (Singa Airlines, "Kadhal Varam")

• Most popular programme: Ms V Supreme 2019

• Most popular male personality: Jaya Ganesh Isuran

• Most popular female personality: Manjari

• Lifetime achievement award: P. Krishnan