the kerala state film awards have always been mired in controversies and this year is no exception the award for the best playback singer this year had gone to karthick for the song janmantharangalil from the movie orissa helmed by m padmakumar however it was revealed later that it was not karthick but pradeep chandrakumar who had sung the song when contacted its music composer ratheesh vega confirmed that it was pradeep and not karthick who sang the song in the movie well i think it is a mistake initially pradeep had sung the track and we later recorded the original version in karthiks voice but since pradeeps voice suited the films character better we used his track in the movie and karthicks version in audio cds i think this might have created confusion we are planning to submit an affidavit to the kerala state chalachitra academy stating that the song used in the movie was sung by pradeep says ratheesh however director harikumar who was part of the jury for the recently announced kerala state film awards strongly defended their verdict saying that the mistake was not made by the judging panel we announced the awards based on the details submitted before the panel i have their application form with me and it clearly says that the song janmantharangalil was sung by karthick said the director adding that if the director producer and music composer submit an affidavit with ample evidence the award will be conferred to whosoever concerned interestingly pradeep chandrakumar was quite oblivious about the issue until the news hit the headline when i heard karthick has won the award for best playback singer i was very happy and thought that his version was selected since i am busy with my final year medical exams i couldnt concentrate on singing for a while but now this has come as a surprise for me and i feel blessed that the song got recognised said the doctorturnedsinger the winners were chosen by a committee headed by veteran director bharathiraja