Chennai, Aug 13 (IANS): Actor-politician Chiranjeevi believes the reason behind the nationwide popularity of Gollapudi Srinivas National Award is because of the love and passion its organisers breathe into the event year after year.

The award was institutionalised in 1998 in the loving memory of debutant filmmaker Gollapudi Srinivas, who passed away while directing his first Telugu film "Prema Pustakam". His family has since been honouring best first-time director among Indian languages.

"There's love and passion behind Gollapudi Awards, hence its nationwide popularity. Some film awards can bore you because they're organised like some school events, but this one is special because it has a family touch," Chiranjeevi, who presided over the award ceremony here on Wednesday, told IANS.

Bollywood choreographer-director Farah Khan was also one of the chief guests, besides southern film actor Siddharth and Tamil filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj.

Debut director Sanjay Gupta received the Gollapudi Srinivas National Award and cash prize worth Rs.150,000 for 2014 for his Hindi drama "Q".

The film "Q" was selected out of 27 nominations from across the country across languages that included Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Telugu and Kannada. The jurors included Tamil director Vasanth, award-winning southern filmmaker Singeetham Srinivasa Rao and actress Rohini.