At the 69th National Film trophies for the year 2021, which were announced on Thursday, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi won in five categories, while S.S. Rajamouli’s blockbuster RRR took home six trophies.
R. Madhavan’s written, produced, and directed Rocketry: The Nambi Effect won Best Feature Film, and Allu Arjun won Best Actor for his work in the Telugu superhit Pushpa: The Rise-Part 1. For Gangubai Kathiawadiand Mimi, Kriti Sanon and Alia Bhatt both received a share of the Best Actress prize.
Directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri The Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration was given to The Kashmir Files. Meppadiyan, which was produced by Unni Mukundan Films and directed by Vishnu Mohan, won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director. The Best Director award was bagged by Nikhil Mahajanaward for the Marathi film Godavari (The Holy Water).
RRR, produced by DVV Entertainments, won in six categories including Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment; Best Male Playback Singer (Kaala Bhairava for the song Komuram Bheemudo); Best Music Direction – M.M. Keeravaani shared the award with Devi Sri Prasad for Pushpa: The Rise-Part 1; Best Special Effects (V. Srinivas Mohan); Best Choreography (Prem Rakshith); and Best Action Direction (King Solomon).
Naatu Naatu, a song from RRR, has earlier this year won an Oscar for Best Original Song at the 95th Academy Awards.
The Bollywood musical Gangubai Kathiawadi, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, won prizes for Best Editing, Best Editing-Adapted Screenplay (Mr. Bhansali and Utkarshini Vashishtha), Best Dialogue (Ms. Vashishtha and Prakash Kapadia), Best Actress (Ms. Bhatt), and Best Makeup Artist (Preetisheel Singh D’souza).
Historical biopic Sardar Udham won awards in five categories: Best Hindi Film (producer Kino works LLP and director Sujit Sircar); Best Cinematography (Avik Mukhopadhayay); Best Audiography (Sinoy Joseph); Best Production Design (Dmitrii Malich and Mansi Dhruv Mehta); and Best Costume Designer (Veera Kapur Ee).
For the Malayalam film Nayattu-The Hunt, Shahi Kabir won the Best Screenplay (Original) prize. Best Supporting Actor went to Pankaj Tripathi for Mimi, and Best Supporting Actress went to Pallavi Joshi for The Kashmir Files. The Srishti Lakhera-directed Bollywood film Ek Tha Gaon won the Best Non-Feature Film prize.
Iravin Nizhal (Shadow of the Night), a Tamil movie, included Maayava Chaayavaa, which earned Shreya Ghoshal the Best Female Playback Singer award. Award for the Best Lyrics went to Chandrabose for Dham Dham Dham in Telugu movie Konda Polam.
The Critics Special Mention award went to Subramanya Badoor (Kannada). Awards were also announced for Best Film Critic (Purushothama Charyulu, Telugu); and Best Book on Cinema (Music by Lakxmikant Pyarelal: The Incredibly Melodious Journey, authored by Rajiv Vijayakar, published by Rupa Publications).
Congratulating the winners, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said: “The jury members of the 69th National Film Awards met me today and handed the report. They have gone through a long list of movies which included feature films, non-feature films and writing on cinema. India produced quality content even during the Covid-19 pandemic…”
“…Today India is the largest film maker in the world. We have the potential to become the content hub of the world. This is our time. Today our films are being recognised all over the world, be it BAFTA or the Oscars,” he said.
