The 66th National Film Awards were announced in New Delhi today by jury heads Rahul Rawail, AS Kanal and Utpal Borpujari, months later than usual protocol. With 419 films submitted in the feature film category and 256 submitted in the non-feature category, the jury had a task at hand.
Amongst awards announced under 75 categories, the tally with the biggest winners stands at –
Nathicharami wins 5,
Uri: The Surgical Strike wins 4,
Andhadhun, Mahanati and Padmaavat win 3,
and the non-fiction film The Secret Life of Frogs wins 3.
In the competition of films by language for fiction films, Hindi films win in 13 categories (counting the tie for Best Actor as 1 category), Kannada in 10, Marathi and Telugu both in 7, Malayalam in 4, and Gujarati and Bengali in 3 categories.
In what could possibly be a first, sound designer Bishwadeep Chatterjee has won in the Best Audiography Category in both fiction and non-fiction categories, with Best Sound Design for Uri: The Surgical Strike and Best Re-Recordist for Children of the Soil.
If you believe in luck, this may the year of Uri, Vicky Kaushal and Aditya Dhar. In order for a film to enter the race for National Film Awards, it is supposed to have received its certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) from January 1 of that year till December 31. Uri received its certification on 31 December 2018. This is the policy that may hold true for a few films in the winner’s list. Find it below.
MAIN FICTION FILM AWARDS
Best Feature Film: Hellaro, Abhishek Shah (Gujarati)
Best Hindi Film: Andhadhun, Sriram Raghavan (Hindi)
Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment: Badhaai Ho, Amit Sharma (Hindi)
Best Film on Social Issues: Padman, R Balki (Hindi)
Nargis Dutt Award for Best Film on National Integration: Ondalla Eradalla, D Satya Prakash (Kannada)
Best Film on Environment Conservation: Paani, Adinath Kothare (Marathi)
Best Children’s Film: Sarkari Area Prathamika Shaale Kasaragodu, Rishab Shetty (Kannada)
Best Short Fiction Film: Kharvas, Aditya Suhas Jambhale (Marathi)
FICTION FILM ARTIST AWARDS
Best Actor (Male): Ayushmann Khurrana, Andhadhun (Hindi) and Vicky Kaushal, Uri: The Surgical Strike (Hindi)
Best Actor (Female): Keerthy Suresh, Mahanati (Telugu)
Best Supporting Actor (Male): Swanand Kirkire, Chumbak (Marathi)
Best Supporting Actor (Female): Surekha Sikri, Badhaai Ho (Hindi)
Best Child Artist: PV Rohith for Ondalla Eradalla (Kannada), Sameep Singh for Harjeeta (Punjabi), Talha Arshad Reshi for Hamid (Urdu) and Shrinivas Pokale for Naal (Marathi).
Best Direction: Aditya Dhar, Uri: The Surgical Strike (Hindi)
Best Debut Film of a Director: Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti, Naal (Marathi)
Best Original Screenplay: Rahul Ravindran, Chi La Sow (Telugu)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sriram Raghavan, Arijit Biswas, Yogesh Chandekar, Hemanth M. Rao, Pooja Ladha Surti for Andhadhun (Hindi)
Best Dialogue: Churni Ganguly, Tarikh (Bengali)
Best Cinematography: MJ Radhakrishnan for Olu (Malayalam)
Best Editing: Nagendra K Ujjani, Nathicharami (Kannada)
Best Production Design: Banglan, Kammara Sambhavam (Malayalam)
Best Action Direction: Vikram More & Anbariv, KGF (Kannada)
Best Special Effects: Srushti Creative Studio for Awe (Telugu) and Unifi Media for KGF (Kannada)
Best Sound Design/ Audiography: Bishwadeep Chatterjee, Uri: The Surgical Strike (Hindi)
Best Location Sound Recordist: Gaurav Verma, Tendlya (Marathi)
Best Re-Recordist/ Final Mixed Track: Raja Krishnan M.R, Rangasthalam (Telugu)
Best Background Score: Shashwat Sachdev, Uri: The Surgical Strike (Hindi)
Best Music Direction: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Padmaavat (Hindi)
Best Male Playback Singer: Arijit Singh, Binte Dil from Padmaavat (Hindi)
Best Female Playback Singer: Bindhu Malini for Maayavi Manave, Nathicharami (Kannada)
Best Lyrics: Manjunatha S/ Mansore for Maayavi Manave, Nathicharami (Kannada)
Best Choreography: Kruti Mahesh Midya, Jyoti D Tommar for Ghoomar, Padmaavat (Hindi)
Best Costume Design: Gaurang Shah, Indrakshi Pattanaik, Archana Rao, Mahanati (Telugu)
Best Makeup Artist: Ranjith, Awe (Telugu)
Special Jury Award: Kedara (Bengali) director Indradip Dasgupta, and Hellaro (Gujarati) actresses Shraddha Dangar, Shachi Joshi, Denisha Ghumra, Neelam Paanchal, Tarjani Bhadla, Brinda Nayak, Tejal Panchasara, Kaushambi Bhatt, Ekta Bachwani, Kamini Panchal, Jagruti Thakore, Riddhi Yadav, Prapti Mehta.
Special Mention Awards: Sruthi Hariharan (Actress, Nathicharami) (Kannada), Chandrachoor Rai (Actor, Kadakh) (Hindi), Joju George (Actor, Joseph) (Malayalam), and Savithri (Actress, Sudani from Nigeria) (Malayalam).
BEST FILM BY LANGUAGE AWARDS
Best Kannada Film: Nathicharami, Manjunatha S/ Mansore
Best Telugu Film: Mahanati, Nag Ashwin
Best Malayalam Film: Sudani from Nigeria, Zakariya Mohammed
Best Tamil Film: Baaram, Priya Krishnaswamy
Best Konkani Film: Amori, Swapnil Shetkar
Best Gujarati Film: Reva, Rahul Surendrabhai Bhole & Vinit Kumar Ambubhai Kanojiya
Best Marathi Film: Bhonga, Shivaji Lotan Patil
Best Rajasthani Film: Turtle (Kachuwa), Dinesh S Yadav
Best Punjabi Film: Harjeeta, Vijay Kumar Arora
Best Bengali Film: Ek Je Chhilo Raja, Srijit Mukherji
Best Assamese Film: Bulbul Can Sing, Rima Das
Best Garo Film: Ma’Ama, Dominic Sangma
Best Sherdukpan Film: Mishing, Bobby Sarma Baruah
Best Pangchenpa Film: In The Land Of Poisonous Women, Manju Borah
Best Urdu Film: Hamid, Aijaz Khan
NON-FICTION/ DOCUMENTARY FILM AWARDS
Best Non-Feature Film: Son Rise by Vibha Bakshi and The Secret Life of Frogs by Ajay Bedi and Vijay Bedi
Best Debut Non-Feature Film of a Director: Feluda: 50 Years of Ray’s Detective, Sagnik Chatterjee
Best Arts and Culture Film: Bunkar: The Last of The Varanasi Weavers, Satyaprakash Upadhyay
Best Science & Technology Film: G.D Naidu: The Edison of India, Renjith Kumar
Best Promotional Film: Rediscovering Jalam, Avinash Maurya & Kriti Gupta
Best Film on Social Issues: Taala Te Kunjee, Shilpi Gulati
Best Educational Film: Sarala Virala, Eregowda
Best Film on Sports: Swimming through the Darkness, Supriyo Sen
Best Investigative Film: Amoli, Jasmine Kaur Roy and Avinash Roy
Best Environment Film: The World’s Most Famous Tiger, Subbiah Nallamuthu
Best Film on Family Values: Chalo Jeete Hain, Mangesh Hadawale
NON-FICTION/ DOCUMENTARY ARTIST AWARDS
Best Director: Gautam Vaze, Aai Shappath
Best Cinematography: Ajay Bedi and Vijay Bedi, The Secret Life of Frogs
Best Editing: Hemanti Sarkar, Son Rise
Best Music Direction: Kedar Divekar, Jyoti
Best Re-Recordist/ Final Mixed Track: Bishwadeep Chatterjee, Children of the Soil
Best Location Sound Recordist: Ajay Bedi, The Secret Life of Frogs
Best Narration/ Voice Over: Deepak Agnihotri and Urvija Upadhyay, Madhubani – The Station of Colours
Special Jury Award: Harish Shah (Director, Why Me?), and Neeraj Singh (Art Direction, Ekaant)
Special Mention Awards: Sagar Puranik (Director, Mahaan Hutatma), Ramana Dumpala (Director, Glow Worm in a Jungle), Sameer Sadhwani and Kishor Sadhwani (Director, Laddoo)
MISCELLANEOUS
Best Book on Cinema: Mouna Prathanapole (Malayalam), Author: S Jayachandran Nair
Special Mention Book: In A Cult Of Their Own: Bollywood Beyond Box Office (English), Author: Amborish Roychoudhury
Best Film Critic: Blais Johny (Malayalam), Anant Vijay (Hindi)
Most Film Friendly State: Uttarakhand
The ceremony has usually been held on May 3 every year but due to elections, this was not followed this year. The ceremony date has not been announced yet.