The 65th National Film Awards ceremony, scheduled to be held on Thursday at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, may be in jeopardy. The reason is that President Ram Nath Kovind has agreed to give away only 11 awards out of several dozen categories. As per the convention, the President presents all the awards.
According to sources, Kovind would not be able to present all the awards. The rest of the winners will be given awards by Information & Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani. Many of the awardees have raised objections to this arrangement; they are incensed that they would have to receive awards from Irani, whom they regard as the enemy of freedom of expression.
Till the writing of this report, the issue could not be resolved.
Boney Kapoor, along with his two daughters Janhvi and Khushi, arrived in the national Capital on Monday evening to accept his wife Sridevi’s award. She is the winner of the Best Actress award for Mom.
The awards and their winners are:
Dada Saheb Phalke Award: Vinod Khanna
Best Actress: Sridevi for Mom
Best Actor: Ridhhi Sen, Nagar Kirtan
Best Director: Jayaraj for Bhayanakam (Malayalam)
Best Film: Village Rockstars (Assamese)
Best Popular Film: Baahubali 2
Special Mention Awards: Murakhiya (Marathi Film ); Hello RC (Odia film); Take Off (Malayalam film); Pankaj Tripathi (for Newton); Malayalam actor Parvathy (for Take Off)
Best Regional Film: Ladhakh
Best Marathi Film: Kaccha Limbu
Best Malayam Film: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum
Best Hindi Film: Newton
Best Bengali Film: Mayurakshi
Best Assamese Film: Ishu
Best Tamil Film: To Let
Best Telugu: Gazi
Best Gujarati: DHH
Best Action Direction: Baahubali 2
Best Choreography: Toilet Ek Prem Katha (Ganesh Acharya is the choreographer)
Best Film Critic: Giridhar Jha
Special Mention for Film Criticism: Sunil Mishra of Madhya Pradesh
Best Special Effects: Baahubali 2
Special Jury Award: Nagar Kirtan (Bengali)
Best lyrics: Muthu Ratna, for Kannada film March 22
Best Music Direction: A.R. Rahman for Kaatru Veliyidai
Background score: A.R. Rahman for Mom
Best Make Up artist: Ram Razak for Nagar Kirtan
Best Production Design: Santosh Rajan (Malayalam)
Best editing: Reema Das (for an Assamese film)
Best Screenplay Original: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum
Best Adapted Screenplay: Bhayankam, to Jairaj
Best Film playback Singer: Shasha Tirupati (Vaan Varuvaan song)
Best Male Playback Singer: Yesudas for Poy Maranja Kalam from Viswasapoorvam Mansoor
Best supporting actress: Divya Dutta, Irada (Hindi Film)
Best Supporting Actor: Fahad Faazil
Best Film for National Integration: Dhappa (Marathi)
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The author may have his own biases for I&B Minister. But instead of reproducing list of awardees, it would have been better had the author enlightened readers about why the President would not be able to present all the awards.
Surprising that they complain of Irani being anti freeedom of expression after all the vile things they themselves say about her. I think those recipients should keep away from the awards and not be allowed to run their masters’ agenda. The entire opposition is hell bent on disposing the able ministers because they get destroyed by ministers like Irani. They are used to getting their way with ministers of previous governments