Director Dayal Padmanaban received the Best Film and the Best Director awards at the Karnataka State Film awards ceremony held at the Convocation Hall of Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) in Mysuru on Monday.

Dayal, who has his roots in Tamil Nadu, won the awards for his 2018 film, Aa Karaala Ratri. On winning the award, the director said, "I’ve never seen a divide between Kannada and Tamil. My goal is to win many more awards in my mother tongue, Tamil, too."

The film is based on a Kannada play by Mohan Habbu, which was written in the 1980s. Karthik Jayaram leads the cast of Aa Karaala Ratri, which also features Anupama Gowda, Rangayana Raghu, and Veena Sundar.

A Tamil remake of the Aa Karaala Ratri, was directed by Dayal, which was titled Kondral Paavam. The film was released in 2023 and starred Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Santhosh Prathap, Easwari Rao, Charle, and Sendrayan, among others.