Suri's "Kendasampige" and Anup Bhandari's "RangiTaranga" have dominated the list of Kannada film nominations for the SIIMA Awards 2016. Both the films, which were made with moderate budgets, turned out to be big hits at the Sandalwood box office last year.
While "Kendasampige" has been nominated in 10 categories, "RangiTaranga" has got nine nominations. These are followed by the Yash-starrer, "Masterpiece," and Shashank's "Krishna Leela," with seven nominations each, and Upendra's "Uppi 2," which has been nominated in five categories.
Suri, who was badly in need of a hit following a few commercial flops, returned to good form with "Kendasampige" in 2015. His film won critical acclaim while experiencing success at the box office.
"RangiTaranga" was the sleeper hit of the year, even though it was made by newbies and had clashed with the blockbuster "Baahubali." In fact, the Kannada movie was removed from many screens to make way for the SS Rajamouli-directed venture. In the end, the low-budget film returned to main screens following good word-of-mouth reviews.
On the other hand, "Masterpiece" and "Uppi 2" raked in good money at the box office despite getting mixed reviews.
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Here is the complete list of nominations of Kannada films:
| Category | Nominations |
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male) | Rajesh Nataranga (Kendasampige) P Ravi Shankar (Aatagara) Pannaga Bharana (Mrugashira) Chetan Chandra (Plus) Arvind Rao (RangiTaranga) |
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Female) | Sheetal Shetty (Kendasampige) Tejaswini Prakash (Goolihatti) Deepika Kamaiah (Neene Bari Neene) Karunya Ram (Vajrakaya) Aishwarya Nag (Muddu Manase) |
| Best Actor in a Negative Role | P Ravi Shankar (Masterpiece) Saikumar (RangiTaranga) Vikram Singh (Rana Vikrama) Prakash Belawadi (Kendasampige) Prakash Rai (Mr. Airavata) |
| Best Lyricist | Manju Mandavya (Annange Love / Masterpiece) Jayant Kaikini (Kanasali Nadesu / Kendasampige) K Kalyan (Ninnalle / Endendigu) Anup Bhandari (Ee Sanje / RangiTaranga) A P Arjun (Raja Rani / Rhaatee) |
| Best Music Director | V Harikrishna (Masterpiece) Sridhar V Sambhram (Krishna Leela) Gurukiran (Uppi 2) Arjun Janya (Vajrakaya) Anup Bhandari (RangiTaranga) |
| Best Playback Singer (Female) | Anuradha Bhat (Mareyada Pustaka / Rathaavara) Inchara Rao (Kareyole / RangiTaranga) Indu Nagaraj (Ka Thalakatu / Mr. Airavata) Shweta Mohan (Kanasali Nadesu / Kendasampige) Apoorva Sridhar (Krishna Calling / Krishna Leela) |
| Best Playback Singer (Male) | Gurukiran (Baekoo Baekoo / Uppi 2) Vijay Prakash (Airdelu Airchilu / Rana Vikrama) Armaan Malik (Free Ide / Siddhartha) Santosh Venky (Raja Rani / Rhaatee) Karthik (Nenape Nithya Mallige / Kendasampige) |
| Best Comedian | Sadhu Kokila (Ram Leela) Chikkanna (Masterpiece) Rangayana Raghu (Rana Vikrama) Achyuth Kumar (Krishna Leela) Tabla Nani (Endendigu) |
| Best Debutant Female | Nabha Natesh (Vajrakaya) Manvitha Harish (Kendasampige) Urvashi Rautela (Mr. Airavata) Radhika Chetan (RangiTaranga) Apoorva Gowda (First Rank Raju) |
| Best Debutant Male | Nirup Bhandari (RangiTaranga) Vinay Rajkumar (Siddhartha) Santhosh Reva ( Kendasampige) Mahesh (Namak Haraam) Prathap Narayan (Benkipatna) |
| Best Debutant Director | Rajkumar Reddy (Ouija) Manju Mandavya ( Masterpiece) Anup Bhandari (RangiTaranga) Imran Sardhariya (Endendigu) Priya Belliappa (Ring Road Suma) |
| Best Actress | Radhika Pandit (Endendigu) Rachita Ram (Ranna) Mayuri Kyatari ( Krishna Leela) Parul Yadav (Vaastuprakara) Shanvi Srivastava (Masterpiece) |
| Best Actor | Yash (Masterpiece) Ajay Rao (Krishna Leela) Neenasam Sathish (Rocket) Puneeth Rajkumar (Rana Vikrama) Upendra (Uppi 2) |
| Best Director | Shashank (Krishna Leela) Upendra (Uppi 2) Pavan Wadeyar (Rana Vikrama) Duniya Soori (Kendasampige) Chandrashekar Bandiyappa (Rathavara) |
| Best Film | Kendasampige (Parimala Film Factory) RangiTaranga (Sri Devi Entertainers) Mythri (Omkar Movies) Uppi 2 (Upendra Productions) Krishna Leela (Sri Krishna Art Creations) |
