New Delhi/Hyderabad: Anand Gandhi’s powerful debut film Ship of Theseus was declared the best feature film, while biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was named best popular film at the 61st National Film Awards. The best actor award was shared by Shahid star Rajkumar Rao and Suraj Venjaramoodu for Malayalam film Perariyathavar, while Hansal Mehta was named best director for Shahid, a biopic on slain lawyer-activist Shahid Azmi. Geetanjali Thapa was named best actress for Hindi film Liar’s Dice. Saurabh Shukla won best supporting actor for the courtroom drama Jolly LLB, which was also named the best Hindi film.
It was also a good day for Telugu cinema. Naa Bangaru Talli won awards in three categories Best Regional Feature Film (Telugu), Best Music and Special Jury Mention for Anjali Patil. Directed by Rajesh Touchriver, the film is based on a true story. The film, featuring Anjali, Siddiq, Laxmi Menon, Ratnasekhar and Nina Kurup, is on sex trafficking and tells the story of a man and his daughter and their trials and tribulations.
Earlier, the film had won awards in the international film festival circuit. The jury for the Indonesian International Film Festival had picked Naa Bangaaru Talli as winner of the Award of Excellence in 2013. Before that, it had won the Best Feature Film award at Trinity International Film Festival, Detroit, USA
At the 61st National Awards, the best supporting actress award was shared by Amruta Subhas and Aida El-Kashef for Astu (Marathi) and Ship of Theseus (English-Hindi). The Indira Gandhi Award for best debut film went to Marathi director Nagraj Manjule for his critically-acclaimed Fandry. The Nargis Dutt Award for the best feature film on national integration was for Balu Mahendra-directed Tamil film Thalaimuraigal. An 11-member jury headed by top director Saeed Mirza announced the awards on Wednesday.
Jaatishwar (Bengali) won the best male playback singer award for the song E Tumi Kemon Tumi by Rupankar, while in the female category Bela Shende won for the song Khura Kura from Tuhya Dharma Koncha (Marathi).
The Marathi film Tuhya Dharma Koncha was declared the best film on social issues. Kaphal (Hindi) was named best children’s film, while Fandry’s Somnath Avghade and Tamil film Thanga Meengal’s Sadhana shared the best child artiste award. P. Sheshadri won the award for his original screenplay in December I, while Panchakshari won it for adapting Prakruti, both in Kannada. The best dialogue award will go to Sumitra Bhave for Marathi film Astu. In various languages, Ajeyo was named best Assamese film, Bakita Byaktigato (Bengali), December 1 (Kannada), Baga Beach (Konkani), North 24 Kaadham (Malayalam), Aajcha Diwas Majha (Marathi) and Thanga Meengal (Tamil) were other winners. Yellow (Marathi) and Naa Bangaru Talli were given special mention by the jury.
The film awards, along with the Dada Saheb Phalke honour for lyricist-director Gulzar, are expected to be presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony in Vigyan Bhawan on May 3.
