South India film actress Shobana and music director A R Rahman today expressed happiness over being chosen for the best actress and best music director awards respectively in the 49th edition of the National Film awards, announced in Delhi today.When contacted, Shobana, who shared the best actress award with Tabu, said she was “immensely happy” though she did not expect it.
“It is a big achievement by a South Indian actress, as the best actress award is coming to the south after 1994,” she said.
Shobana excelled in her role of a lonely mother in ‘Mitr-My Friend’.
Rahman’s office quoted him as saying he was “honoured” to receive the award, as he was getting it for the third time. While the first two were for his Tamil films, ‘Roja’ and ‘Minsaara Kanavu’, he was receiving the national award for the third time for a Hindi film, Aamir Khan’s ‘Lagaan’.
He thanked the jury and others for their support in getting the National award.
