The 2021 Critics Choice Awards were announced on Monday following weeks of speculation as to which of the expanding OTT content in India would receive top honours. Best Film and Director went to Pratik Vat's 'Eeb Allay Ooo' while Tillotama Shome and Manoj Bajpayee won the Best Actor and Actress for 'Sir' and 'Bhonsle' respectively. Two Malayalam films, 'Ayyappanum Koshiyum' and 'C U Soon' also received Best Writing and Best Editing, going to late Sachu and Mahesh Narayanan.
"Thank you @CCSSAwards for this honour. @RohenaGera thank you for Ratna, #VivekGomber and @getkul thank you for being incredible co interpreters. Am delighted to be in the company of these luminous women @taapsee @swastika24 @aishu_dil @ShilpiMarwaha. I wish we could have all met," Shome tweeted.
Pankaj Tripathi won in the 'Best Supporting Actor' category for 'Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl' while Sai Pallavi bagged Best Supporting Actress for her heartrending performance in Netflix's 'Paava Kadhaigal' anthology series. In the Feature Films segment, Anubhav Sinha's 'Thappad' received the Gender Sensitivity award.
Reflecting the growing success of OTT content in India, Hansal Mehta's 'Scam 1992' scooped the 'Best Series' award. Writers for the series, Sumit Purohit, Saurav Dey, Vaibhav Vishal, Karan Vyas were honoured with the Best Writing award while Pratik Gandhi received Best Actor for his role in the series.
Other awards include:
Short Film
Best Short Film – Bebaak
Best Director – Shazia Iqbal for Bebaak
Best Actor – Adil Hussain for Meal
Best Actress – Amruta Subhash for The Booth
Best Writing – Shazia Iqbal for Bebaak (Dying Wind In Her Hair)
Feature Films
Best Cinematography – Siddharth Diwan for Bulbbul
Web Series
Best Actress – Sushmita Sen for Aarya
Best Supporting Actor – Abhishek Banerjee for Paatal Lok
Best Supporting Actress – Swastika Mukherjee for Paatal Lok