Eeshna Dashottar, Pune
The 70th National Film Awards 2024 was held on October 8, 2024, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. The ceremony felicitated some of the significant personalities from the entertainment industry of the country for their exceptional performances in various creative endeavours. Several awards in different categories, along with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Lifetime Achievement Award were presented at this ceremony. President Droupadi Murmu presided over the event and felicitated the winners with awards.
President Droupadi Murmu addressed the gathering and spoke about the occassion. She also pointed out that only 15 out of 85 awardees were women, urging the Indian film fraternity to work more towards female-centric growth of the industry. Along with other dignitaries present at the event, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Information & Broadcasting Minister, L. Murugan and the Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting also presided over the ceremony. Vaishnaw also announced the government’s plans to establish the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) in Mumbai as a growth and learning centre for the creative fields.
At the 70th National Film Awards, renowned actor Mithun Chakraborty was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Lifetime Achievement Award for the year 2022 for his remarkable contributions to the field. The actor received a standing ovation from all the prominent dignitaries and guests present at the event. In an interview with ANI, the veteran actor told about his happiness to receive this award which he dedicated to his family and fans. He also recalled his initial days in Kolkata and his journey in Bollywood.
The award for Best Actor in a Leading Role was given to Rishab Shetty for the film ‘Kantara’(Kannada). The Best Actress in a Leading Role was awarded to two actresses this time. This award was shared by Nithya Menen for ‘Thiruchitrambalam’ (Tamil) and Manasi Parekh for ‘Kutch Express’ (Gujarati). ‘Aattam (The Play)’ (Malayalam) directed by Anand Ekarshi won the Best Feature Film award. In the Best Non-Feature Film category, the winner was Director Siddhant Sarin’s ‘Ayena (Mirror)’. Sooraj R. Barjatya was felicitated with the Best Direction award for the film ‘Uunchai’. Manoj Bajpayee was also felicitated with a special mention for ‘Gulmohar’.
A.R. Rahman was awarded with the Best Music Director (background music) award for ‘Ponnyin Selvan-Part 1’ (Tamil). Arijit Singh won the Best Male Playback Singer award for ‘Kesariya’ in ‘Brahmastra-Part 1’ while Bombay Jayshri won the same award in the female category for ‘Chaayum Veyil’ in ‘Saudi Vellaka CC 225/2009’.
Many more personalities were awarded at the event held on Tuesday. Films like ‘Brahmastra-Part 1’, ‘Ponnyin Selvan-Part 1’, ‘Kantara’, ‘Uunchai’, etc. received awards across multiple categories.