Yami Gautam starrer ‘Article 370’ won the Best Feature Film award at the 72nd National Film Awards of India, announced by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in New Delhi on Saturday.
Gautam also won the Best Actress award for her role in the film, a political drama centered on the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. The film is produced by Jio Studios and B62 Studios and directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale.
Gautam won the Best Actress Award for her role in this film. The Best Actor award went to Mammootty, who was honored for his role in the Malayalam film Brahmayugam, and Kartik Aaryan, who was recognized for his role in the Bollywood film Chandu Champion. Rajkumar Periasamy won the Best Director award for the Tamil film ‘Amaran’. Randeep Hooda won the award for Best Debut Director for the Bollywood film ‘Swatantrya Veer Savarkar’. The Best Supporting Actress award was shared between Satchana Namidas for the Tamil film Maharaja and Lopashree Valkady for the Kannada film Meetya. Sanjay Mishra won the Best Supporting Actor award for the Hindi film Bakshak.
The Telugu blockbuster ‘Kalki 2898 A.D.’ was named the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, while the Tamil film ‘Captain Miller’ was named the Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values. Telugu film “35 – Chinna Katha Kaadu” won the Best Children’s Film Award.
In the non-feature category, Sumila Roy’s Marathi-English film “Bhangar” won the best non-feature film, while Bharatbala Ganapathy’s “Ram Nami” won the documentary award.
Technical honors were widespread. Shehnad Jalal won the cinematography award for ‘Brahmayugam’ and R Kalaivanan won the editing award for ‘Amaran’. The award for best screenplay was split into three categories: Bandredy Sukumar (Pushpa: The Rules Part 2) for the original screenplay, Yogesh Deshpande (Shwargandharva Sudhir Padke) for the adapted screenplay, and Venky Atluri (Lucky Bhaskar) for the dialogue. Manas Chaudhary won Best Sound Design for ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ and Nitin Jehani Chaudhary won Best Production Design for ‘Kalki 2898 AD’. The award for best makeup went to P. Ravi Kumar for ‘Committee Kurrollu’. Deepali Noor and Sheetal Sharma shared the best costume design for ‘Pushpa: The Rules Part 2’.
The Best Music Director award went to Shashwat Sachdev for his music in ‘Article 370’ and GV Prakash Kumar for his background music in ‘Amaran’. Manoj Muntasir won the Best Lyrics Award for ‘Maidan’, Vijay Ganguly won the Best Choreography Award for ‘Street 2’ and Anru Arasu won the Best Action Director Award for ‘Maharaja’. Abhay Jodhpurkar and Vaikom Vijayalakshmi won Best Male Playback Singer and Best Female Playback Singer for ‘Gharat Ganpati’ and ‘ARM’ respectively.
The regional language honors went to ‘Juipur’ (Assamese), ‘Chalchitra Ekhon’ (Bengali), ‘Maaran’ (Gujarati), ‘Srikanth’ (Hindi), ‘Meethiya’ (Kannada), ‘Mog Asum’ (Konkani), ‘Feminichi Fatima’ (Malayalam), ‘Sunita’ (Manipuri) and ‘Mukkam Post’. ‘Bombirwadi’ (Marathi), ‘Rahari’ (Odia), ‘Raayan’ (Tamil, directed by Dhanush), ‘Committee Krolllu’ (Telugu). ‘Dholi’ and ‘Imbu’ won the best film award for Garhwali and Tulu respectively.
Special mentions in the feature category went to Dhanush for ‘Captain Miller’ and sound mix engineer Suren G for ‘Meiyazhagan’.
In the non-feature category, “Kakoli” won the Biographical/Historical Reconstruction Film Award, “Main Nida” won the Art/Cultural Film Award, and “Pipraanthri: A Story of Eco-Feminism” won for the Promotion of Social and Environmental Values. Josie Benedict’s “Touched as Water” won Best Animated Film and “Humsafar” (Marathi) won Best Short Film. Aanand L. Rai won the Best Director award in the non-feature category for Statue of Unity – Ekta ka Prateek. Edmond Ranson won Best Cinematography for “Life in Room” and TS Hari Hara Soudhan won Best Sound Design for “Blue”. Ananda Jyoti’s ‘Bhadra-Kali Natakam’ and Jamin Modi and Lokesh Ghai’s ‘Chola Dora aur Sui’ were selected for the special award.
In the Best Writing for a Film category, Kenchanur Pradeep Kumar Shetty won the Best Book Award for his Kannada work on the philosophy and politics of Kannada cinema, Naaniruvde Nimagargi Nadiruvde Nanagagi: Kannada Cinema, published by Mirror Pustaka. Sanjeev Shrivastava won the Best Film Critic Award.
The feature film award was decided by a central jury chaired by Malayalam film director Jayaraj, with regional committees participating in the selection process. Aseem Sinha chaired the jury for non-feature films, while A. Chandrasekhar chaired the jury for film awards. Lokesh Ghai and the Malayalam film ‘Bhadla Kali Nathakam’ directed by Ananda Jyoti.
