Ishika Roy, Pune
The 69th National Film Awards, held at the National Media Centre, Delhi, declared their winners at a press conference by the jury on Thursday. The awards celebrate Indian films in the feature and non-feature categories certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) between December 1 and 31, 2021.
R. Madhavan’s Rocketry: The Nambi Effect won the Best Feature Film award, and Nikhil Mahajan bagged the Best Director award for the Marathi film Godavari. Alia Bhatt and Kriti Sanon shared the Best Actress award for their roles in Gangubai Kathiawadi and Mimi respectively, and Allu Arjun from Pushpa: The Rise-Part 1 took home the Best Actor honor. Pankaj Tripathi and Pallavi Joshi won the Best Supporting Actor and Actress for Mimi and The Kashmir Files, in that order. Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Utkarshini Vashistha got the Best Screenplay Award for Gangubai, and Utkarshini shared the Best Dialogue honor with Prakash Kapadia. Gangubai also won Best Editing and Make-up.
Following the Oscar prestige, RRR’s MM Keeravani and Kaala Bhairava won Best Music Direction (Background) and Male Playback Singer. Sardar Udham won Best Hindi Film and director Shoojit Sircar dedicated the victory to late actor Irrfan Khan. The film also picked up several accolades like Best Cinematography, Costume Designer, Production Design and Audiography. Rakshit Shetty’s 777 Charlie won Best Kannada Film and the actor tweeted how humbled and grateful he was besides being proud and over the moon.
Kriti Sanon took to Instagram to share her gratitude with her audience, thanking her director Laxman Utekar for his support and guidance, her parents and sister for being her “constant cheerleaders” and even congratulated Alia Bhatt on sharing the award with her, expressing her admiration and excitement regarding the same.
In the non-feature film category, Ek Tha Gao won the Best Film award while Bakul Matiyani for Smile Please got Best Director. Rukhu Matir Dukhu Majhi and Beyond Blast jointly won Best Biographical Film. Shekhar Bapu Rankhambe’s film Rekha highlighting the terrible state of menstrual hygiene of homeless people living on the street got the Special Jury Award. The awards ceremony will be formally held later.