A delightful gathering Kollywood stars gathered in large numbers at University Centenary Auditorium in Chennai on Thursday where Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa gave away State Film Awards for the year 2003 and 2004. The likes of Vikram, Jyothika, Srikanth, Vivek,  Laila, Meera Vasudevan, Srikanth Deva, Cheran, Harini, Hariharan among others received the award.

Speaking on the occasion, Jayalalithaa announced that the efforts of the small-screen artistes will be recognised and awards would be given to them by the State government from next year. She urged the film-makers to make movies which would carry good messages to the public. Also, she urged the film industry to learn new techniques and use it in their films. 

On the various measures taken by her government to protect the film industry, the Chief Minister listed out the steps including the crackdown on pirated CDs (VCDs) and reduction of entertainment tax. Veteran film personalities including K R Vijaya, T M Soundararajan, P Suseela, T P Muthulakshmi and S Janaki, director K Shankar and S P Balasubramanian were among those who received awards for their contribution to the film industry.