Hyderabad, Mar 21: The Telangana government on Saturday announced the winners of the prestigious Gaddar State Film Awards for 2025, with actor Naga Chaitanya being named Best Actor for his performance in Thandel and actress Rashmika Mandanna winning Best Actress for The Girlfriend.
Naga Chaitanya was praised for his captivating portrayal of a shipping vessel captain in director Chandoo Mondeti’s Thandel, while Rashmika was lauded for her powerful depiction of a woman breaking free from a toxic relationship in Rahul Ravindran’s The Girlfriend.
The awards were announced at a press conference by Telangana Film Development Corporation Chairman Dil Raju. In addition to Chaitanya’s win, Thandel also received the award for Best Film on National Integrity. Anil Ravipudi’s blockbuster Sankranthiki Vasthunam was honoured with the Best Entertainment Film award.
The Best Film award went to Raju Weds Rambhai, while Dhandoraa and The Pre Wedding Show were named second and third best films respectively. The Best Debut Feature Film award was presented to Little Hearts.
Teja Sajja-starrer Mirai won accolades for Best Special Effects, Best Editing (Sreekar Prasad), and Best Cinematography (Karthik Ghattamneni), while Court was adjudged Best Social Message Film. Actor Shivaji won Best Supporting Actor, and Bhumika won Best Supporting Actress.
The jury awards went to Chaitu Jonnalagadda for Best Actor (Raju Weds Rambhai) and Ananthika for Best Actress (8 Vasanthalu). The Special Jury Hero award went to Roshan Meka for his role in the period drama Champion, which also bagged awards for Best Art Direction (Thota Tharani), Best Action Choreography (Peter Hein), Best Dance Choreography (Aata Sandeep), and Best Costume Design (Chandrakant Sonawane and Ajay Kumar Nambala).
A series of special honours were also announced: Megastar Chiranjeevi received the NTR National Award, Ashwini Dutt was honoured with the Nagireddy–Chakrapani Award, Kamal Haasan will be presented the Paidi Jairaj Award, and veteran actress Jayasudha will receive the Akkineni Award.
Other notable awards included the C. Narayana Reddy (CINARE) Award for Suddala Ashok Teja, Kantha Rao Award for R Narayana Murthy, B N Reddy Award for Sangeetam Srinivasa Rao, and the Raghupathi Venkaiah Award for Ramesh Prasad, recognising their outstanding contributions to Telugu cinema.
