Last year's romantic entertainer 96, directed by cinematographer turned director Premkumar and starring Makkal Selvan Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha turned out to be a surprise blockbuster, and the movie is being remade in Telugu and Kannada currently.

Ever since it's release, the movie has been winning numerous awards in various award events, and now the movie has won another prestigious award. Director Premkumar has been awarded the Gollapudi Srinivas award for best debut director.

The award is given in memory of Gollapudi Srinivas, the youngest son of Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, and the previous instance of a Tamil director receiving the award was in 2002, by Janaki Viswanathan for Kutty. Meanwhile, Samantha and Sharwanand will star in the Telugu remake of 96 and Bhavana and Ganesh are the leads in the Kannada version.