Critics Choice Awards announced, Manoj Bajpayee, Tillotama Shome bag top honours

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