Since its beginning in 1954, the National Film Awards have grown to become the most respected film honour in India. They continue to highlight diverse voices and talent from across the country.
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71st National Awards: Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan on Friday clinched his maiden National Award for his performance in Atlee-directed “Jawan”. He shared the award with fellow actor Vikrant Massey for the film “12th Fail”.
Rani Mukherjee won the ‘Best Actress’ award for her poignant role in “Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway”, where she played a mother battling a foreign government for the custody of her children.
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Considered the highest government honour for the film industry, the 71st National Film Awards were announced by the Directorate of Film Festivals under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The award honours the best of Indian cinema in various categories, including acting, direction, technical brilliance, music, and regional filmmaking.
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The award for Best Supporting Actor (Male) went to Malayalam actor Vijayaraghavan for his touching performance in “Pookkalam”, while Urvashi received the award for Best Supporting Actress.
In the feature film category, the Best Hindi Film was “Kathal: A Jackfruit Mystery”. The Best Tamil Film went to ‘Parking’, directed by Ramkumar Balakrishnan, which also won for screenplay. ‘Bhagavanth Kesari’ took home the Best Telugu Film award, while the Malayalam drama ‘Ullazhukku’ was honoured as the best in its category.
The Best Kannada Film was ‘Kandeelu: The Ray of Hope’, and ‘Shyamchi Aai’ won in the Marathi category. Other regional winners included ‘Deep Fridge’ (Bengali), ‘Rongatapu’ (Assamese), ‘Pushkara’ (Odia), ‘Vash’ (Gujarati), ‘Rimgodittanga’ (Garo), and ‘Pai Tang… Step of Hope’ (Tai Phake).
The jury also recognised outstanding work in artistic and technical categories. ‘The First Film’ (Hindi) by Piyush Thakur won Best Direction in the non-feature category, while Sai Rajesh Neelam’s ‘Baby’ (Telugu) and Ramkumar Balakrishnan’s ‘Parking’ (Tamil) shared the Best Screenplay award.
‘Pookkalam’ (Malayalam) impressed the jury with its precise editing by Midhun Murali. Mohandas won for Best Production Design for the Malayalam survival drama ‘2018: Everyone Is A Hero’. The war biopic ‘Sam Bahadur’ took home awards for Best Costume Design and Best Make-Up, with the work of Sachin Lavalekar, Divuyaa Gambhri, Niddhi Gambhir, and Shrikant Desai being recognised.
‘Animal’, another popular film, received awards for Sound Design and Background Score, with special mention to M.R. Rajakrishnan for his re-recording work. The award for Best Choreography went to the energetic “Dhodora Baje Re” song from ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’.
In the music section, G.V. Prakash Kumar won Best Music Direction for ‘Vaathi’ (Tamil), while Sandeep Reddy Vanga won Best Background Score for ‘Animal’. The award for Best Lyrics went to Kasala Shyam for his soulful writing in ‘Balagam’ (Telugu).
The non-feature film section included some of the most thought-provoking work of the year. ‘Flowering Man’ (Hindi), directed by Soumyajit Ghosh, won the Best Non-Feature Film award. The award for Best Debut Director went to ‘Mau: The Spirit of Dream of Cheraw’ from Mizoram.
‘MO Bau, MO Gaon’ by Subash Sahoo was awarded Best Biographical or Historical Reconstruction. ‘Timeless Tamil Nadu’, directed by Kamakhya Narayan Singh, won Best Arts and Culture Film. The Best Documentary award went to ‘God Vulture and Human’, directed by Rishiraj Agarwal.
The short film ‘Giddh: The Scavenger’, a Hindi-language work by Manish Saini, was chosen as the Best Short Film. Akshat Gupta’s ‘The Silent Epidemic’, a film focusing on social and environmental issues, won in its category.
Other notable non-feature wins included ‘The Sacred Jack: Exploring The Tree of Wishes’ for Best Voice Over by Harikrishna S, and ‘Little Wings’ (Tamil) for Best Cinematography, credited to Saravanamaruthu and Meenakshi Soman. ‘Moving Focus’ (English) was awarded Best Editing, while ‘Dhundhgiri Ke Phool’ won Best Sound Design.
Pranil Desai was recognised for Best Music Direction in ‘The First Film’ (Hindi), and the award for Best Script went to ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ (Kannada).
Two films in the non-feature section received Special Mentions: ‘Nekal: Chronicle of The Paddy Man’ and ‘The Sea and Seven Villages’ (Malayalam) for their unique approach and storytelling. In the writing on cinema category, Utpal Datta was named Best Film Critic.
The National Film Awards ceremony was streamed live on the Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) official Facebook and YouTube channels from 6 PM onwards. This year, the jury reviewed more than 330 feature films and 115 non-feature films from different languages and regions.
Since its beginning in 1954, the National Film Awards have grown to become the most respected film honour in India. They continue to highlight diverse voices and talent from across the country, from mainstream hits to regional gems.
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