National Film Awards: Anant Nag gets Dadasaheb Phalke Award; Vaikom Vijayalakshmi among winners

The winners of the 72nd National Film Awards, announced earlier, received their honours from President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat’s Narmada district. The ceremony marked a notable departure from tradition, with the venue shifted from New Delhi, where the National Film Awards have traditionally been presented. Among the highlights was veteran actor Anant Nag being conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his decades-long contribution to Indian cinema.

Malayalam cinema also had a strong presence at the ceremony, with playback singer Vaikom Vijayalakshmi and ‘Feminichi Fathima’ director Fasil Mohammed among the Malayali winners. Vijayalakshmi received the Best Female Playback Singer award for ‘Angu Vaana Konilu’ from the Malayalam film ‘ARM.’

Aditya Suhas Jambhale’s Hindi feature film Article 370 won the Best Feature Film award, with the film also earning Yami Gautam the Best Actress in a Leading Role honour. Shashwat Sachdev received the Best Music Direction award for the film, making Article 370 the recipient of three National Film Awards this year.

Mammootty and Kartik Aaryan shared the Best Actor in a Leading Role award for their performances in Bramayugam and Chandu Champion, respectively. Sanjay Mishra won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Bhakshak, while Sachana Namidass received the Best Actress in a Supporting Role award for the Tamil film Maharaja. Ropashree Varkady won the second Best Actress in a Supporting Role honour for the Kannada film Mithya.

Actor-turned-director Randeep Hooda received the Best Debut Film of a Director award for Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, while Rajkumar Periasamy won Best Direction for the Tamil film Amaran. R Kalaivannan also received the Best Editing award for Amaran, while G V Prakash Kumar was honoured for the film’s background music.

Among the other major winners, Telugu film ‘Pushpa: The Rule Part-02’ won Best Costume Design, while its director Bandreddi Sukumar received the Best Screenplay award. Manoj Muntashir won Best Lyrics for ‘Jaane Do’ from Maidaan, and Vijay Ganguly received the Best Choreography award for ‘Aaj Ki Raat’’ from ‘Stree 2.’ In the playback singing categories, Abhay Jodhpurkar won Best Male Playback Singer for ‘Navasachi Gauri Mazi’ from the Marathi film ‘Gharat Ganpati,’ while Vaikom Vijayalakshmi took home the Best Female Playback Singer honour.

‘Bhangaar,’ directed and produced by Sumira Roy, was named Best Non-Feature Film, with Roy accepting the award. Sanjeev Shrivastava received the Best Film Critic award in Hindi. ‘Maaran,’ directed by Abhishek Jain, was named Best Gujarati Film.