All roads on Sunday led to the Palace Grounds. From Rebel star to the Golden Star... the crème de la crème of Sandalwood was going to be there and there was no way that Kannada movie buffs would give the Sunfeast Film Awards ceremony, a pass.

If the sight of actors Ganesh, Puneeth Rajkumar, Shivanna, Priyanka, Prem, Prajwal and Amulya delighted some, it was the performances of the gorgeous Ramya and bubbly Jeniffer that did the others in. 

Actors Jayanthi and Ambarish were in for a double treat. As not only were they conferred with the lifetime achievement award but were also witness to performances involving their all time hits. Anu Prabhakar, actress and daughter-in-law of Jayanthi,  won the hearts of the audience, with her dance to ‘tangaliyalli....’ and ‘doni sagali..’

Well, what industry event is complete without a tribute to ‘annavru’ and the event saw a nakali (duplicate) Raj Kumar dancing to popular Raj numbers. Also in true Raj style, the ‘nakali nata’  (actor) urged the industry to remain united. An item by ‘nakali’ Ravichandran, Sahasasimha, Shankar Nag, Shivarajkumar and Upendra also drew an applause.

It was a day that not just film buffs would remember for a long time to come, but also the makers of Vijay starrer ‘Duniya’, for the movie bagged a fair share of awards.

‘Kanasugara’ Ravichandran and comedy king Jagesh were also honoured on the occasion for their 25 years of contribution to the ‘belli tere’ (silver screen). While Ravichandran recalled his journey to success, Jagesh revealed how he had borrowed money to go and meet actor Dwarkeesh in Mysore, in connection with a movie role.

Dwarkeesh presenting the award, only added to Jagesh’s joy. Komal, who was awarded the best comedian award, was however, the one who appealed the most to the crowd, with his “let your love for me be long lived like diabetes and not like cold or cough that is temporary” dialogue. 

Dr Raj Kumar Special Awards were given to ‘Shani’ Mahadevappa and Shantamma, who have acted with Dr Raj in many movies.