Published Dec 19, 2022 | 6:55 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 19, 2022 | 6:58 PM
Chilkuri Sushil Rao tiss award receiving the TISS Special Jury award in Hyderabad. (Supplied)
Documentary filmmaker Chilkuri Sushil Rao’s India’s GreenHeart Dusharla Satyanarayana won the Special Jury Award at the Telangana International Film Festival (TIFF).
The awards ceremony was held at the Prasad Labs preview theatre in Hyderabad on 15 December.
The award was presented to the filmmaker by noted lyricist Suddala Ashok Teja, TIFF founder and film director Manjula Surooju, Telangana State Police Academy deputy director R Giridhar, IPS, and Murali Dharmapuri of the TIFF from Australia.
The 10-minute documentary was also screened as part of the awards ceremony.
A documentary on biodegradable carry bags, the technology for which was developed at the DRDO, was also given the Special Jury Award and presented to scientist K Veera Brahmam.
In all, 100 entries were received for the film festival, of which two were selected for the Special Jury Awards and three short films for the awards.
“The award was a recognition of the selfless climate activist Dusharla Satyanarayana,” Chilkuri Sushil Rao said at the event.
“The choice of the jury in selecting the film only shows the importance that they have accorded to the idea of preserving nature and the environment,” he added.
India’s GreenHeart Dusharla Satyanarayana is about 69-year-old Dusharla Satyanarayana, who created a forest on 70 acres of his ancestral land at Raghavapuram near the Suryapet town in Telangana.
He started developing the forest more than six decades ago and has been preserving it. The nature-lover and environmentalist took up many causes throughout his several decades of public life.
At the awards presentation ceremony, noted lyricist Suddala Ashok Teja lauded the film festival organiser Manjula Surooju for conducting the festival as a platform to showcase the works and films of independent filmmakers.
He also praised Dusharla Satyanarayana for his work on preserving the environment.
A book titled Nenu Adavini Matladuthunna (This is Me, The Forest, Speaking) authored by Suddala Ashok Teja was presented to Chilkuri Sushil Rao on the occasion.
The short film Pullaiss, directed by Shivani Naidu, was adjudged the best short film. It is about a differently-abled widowed mother and her son.
