The 68th National Film Awards announcement was held on Friday (July 22) at National Media Centre in New Delhi.
The event was organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals, which comes under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
This year, there were 305 feature films as entries in 30 languages. In the non-feature film category, 148 films in 28 languages were received as entries.
Films in 15 languages other than those specified in the 8th schedule of the Constitution were received as entries. 24 books and 5 film critics competed for the best writing in cinema awards.
Here is the complete list of winners:
Most Film Friendly State - Madhya Pradesh
Best Telugu Film - Colour Photo
Best Malayalam Film - Thinkalazcha Nischayam
Best Hindi Film - Toolsidas Junior
Best Marathi Film - Goshta Eka Paithanichi
Best Kannada Film - Dollu
Best Screenplay - Soorarai Pottru
Best Film Wholesome Entertainment - Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior
Best Actor - Ajay Devgn for Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior and Suriya for Soorarai Pottru
Best Actress - Aparna Balamurali for Soorarai Pottru
Best Feature Film - Soorarai Pottru
Best Music Direction (Background Music) - GV Prakash for Soorarai Pottru
Best Music Direction (Songs) - Thaman S for Telugu film Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo
Best Children's Film - Sumi
Best Direction - Sachidanandan KR for Malayalam film Ayyappanum Koshiyum
Best Supporting Actor - Biju Menon for Ayyappanum Koshiyum
Best Lyrics - Manoj Muntashir for Saina
Best Playback Singer - Rahul Deshpande for Mi Vasantrao (I am Vasantrao)
The 10 jury members team headed by filmmaker Vipul Shah took the final call.
Vipul and his team altogether saw a total sum of 66 films in a short period. Despite several challenges coming along the way, the jury has done a spectacular job in choosing the deserving films.
Talking about his experience, Vipul says, “Being the chairman of the national award jury was an honor. It was for the Covid affected year 2020, where-in most of the films could not go ahead with the shoot and release so I was skeptical that there may not be enough quality films, but to our surprise there were many amazing films and deliberating on those films was a great honor. We have done our best, with full honesty and commitment. Watching 66 films in a short span of time was challenging and the entire jury was completely committed to the task and they have done a great job so my congratulations to all of them.”
