National awards yes, but many movies have not hit box office yet

As far as Tamil Nadu goes, children ruled the roost at the 62nd National Film Awards, announced on Tuesday.
`Saivam', the story about a little girl's love for her rooster, bagged 10-year-old Uthara Unnikrishnan the award for best female playback singer, while `Kaakai Muttai' (meaning Crow's Egg), the story of two little boys from a slum craving for pizza, won its lead actors brothers J Vignesh, 14, and J Ramesh, 12, both from a slum in Kasimedu, the awards for best child artistes.
For Uthara, the win's a double whammy because 20 years ago, her father P Unnikrishnan had won his first National Award for playback singing for his first song (for the film `Kaadhalan').
"The chance to sing in `Saivam' came by accident," says the 10-year-old, who is a Class 5 student at Lady Andal Venkata Subba Rao School. "I sing at golus and music director G V Prakash, who was composing for `Saivam', heard me sing. That was how I got the chance," says Uthara.
Na Muthukumar, who won his second national award in a row for best lyricist, again for `Saivam', says both his awards were songs focused on a child's emotions.He won for `Thanga Meenkal' last year. Director Manikandan says he is happy about his win for Best Children's Film award at the 62nd national awards, but admits he will be a great deal happier when the film 'Kaakkaa Muttai' hits the box office.
"The film has not released in theatres, so no one really knows about it.The producers have told me that they are planning for a May 2015 release," he says. The film revolves around two boys from a slum, who learn about `pizza' from a TV advert and decide they want to eat one. "I thought of the story when I had taken my son out for pizza," says Manikandan. The movie has no major star cast, and the posters feature a mother at her stove and the two boys.
Only two of the Tamil films that bagged awards �� Jigarthanda (about a Madurai gangster) and Saivam �� were released at the box office in 2014.
Another of the Tamil films �� Kuttram Kadithal, which won for Best Tamil Movie �� has also not managed to hit the box office yet.
It was the fact that a number of award-winning Tamil films don't make it to theatres, that led another of this year's national award-winners, Dhananjeyan G �� who won for Best Writing on Cinema for his book `Pride of Tamil Cinema' �� to research his book. "The book is about national and international award-winning Tamil movies, which sadly most people have not even seen," says Dhananjeyan, who is also a producer. "The book looks at cinema from 1931 to 2013, and all the Tamil films that won national awards from 1954 onwards �� the year the awards were instituted �� are featured and reviewed in the book," says Dhananjeyan, who adds that there are 252 movies mentioned in the book.
"I found a pattern, which is that your regular box office masala film does not win big at the national awards. They only get the technical awards. But films that reflect society may not win at the box office but they bag most of the awards because that is what the jury wants to see �� films that are a wake-up to viewers," he says.
"Several of the award winners had no audience. Like D Jayakantan's Unnaipol Oruvan, which won a national award in 1965 is a brilliant movie but had no audience," says Dhananjeyan."This year's 'Kuttram Kadithal' is about the education system and no one has seen it," he adds.
The National Film Awards is one the prominent film award ceremonies in the country.