National Film Awards: Anant Nag gets Dadasaheb Phalke honour; Yami Gautam, Mammootty among top win

Veteran Kannada actor Anant Nag on Tuesday received the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award as President Droupadi Murmu conferred the 72nd National Film Awards for 2024 on leading talents of Indian cinema at a ceremony held against the backdrop of the Statue of Unity here.

Hindi feature film "Article 370", directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale, was named Best Feature Film, while Yami Gautam, Mammootty and Kartik Aaryan received the top acting honours.

The ceremony brought together actors, filmmakers, musicians, technicians and other veterans from across the Indian film industry.

Nag, whose career spans more than five decades, was honoured for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema, particularly for his diverse body of work in Kannada cinema.

Yami Gautam received the Best Actress in a Leading Role award for "Article 370", while Mammootty and Kartik Aaryan shared the Best Actor in a Leading Role award for "Bramayugam" and "Chandu Champion", respectively.

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".

Sumira Roy's "Bhangaar", which she directed and produced, received the Best Non-Feature Film award, while "Ram-Nami" was named Best Documentary.

Sanjeev Shrivastava received the Best Film Critic award in Hindi.

Sachana Namidass won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the Tamil film "Maharaja", while Ropashree Varkady received the second award in the category for the Kannada film "Mithya".

"Maaran", directed by Abhishek Jain, was named Best Gujarati Film.

Telugu film "Pushpa: The Rule Part-02" won the Best Costume Design award, while Bandreddi Sukumar received the Best Screenplay award for the film.

R Kalaivannan won Best Editing for "Amaran", while Manoj Muntashir received the Best Lyrics award for "Jaane Do" from "Maidaan".

Sanjay Mishra received the Best Actor in a Supporting Role award for "Bhakshak".

Abhay Jodhpurkar won Best Male Playback Singer for "Navasachi Gauri Mazi" from the Marathi film "Gharat Ganpati", while Vaikom Vijayalakshmi received the Best Female Playback Singer award for "Angu Vaana Konilu" from the Malayalam film "ARM".

Shashwat Sachdev won Best Music Direction for "Article 370", while G V Prakash Kumar was honoured for the background music of "Amaran".

"Article 370" emerged as one of the major winners, taking home three awards — Best Feature Film, Best Actress and Best Music Direction.

Vijay Ganguly received the Best Choreography award for "Aaj Ki Raat" from "Stree 2".

The ceremony followed the arrival of several prominent film personalities in Vadodara on Monday, including G V Prakash, choreographer Kala Master, Rajya Sabha MP and filmmaker-screenwriter V Vijayendra Prasad, actor Sreelekha Mukherji and filmmaker Jayarajan Nair.

Prakash had said he was excited to visit the Statue of Unity for the first time, while Vijayendra Prasad, known for his work as a screenwriter including on "RRR", had also expressed excitement about visiting the monument dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

The National Film Awards, instituted in 1954, recognise achievements in Indian cinema across feature films, non-feature films and writings on cinema, covering a wide range of languages, regions and forms of filmmaking.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has decided to take the awards ceremony to different parts of the country in the coming years.

"Future editions will travel beyond the national capital to different states and cities. The ceremony at Ekta Nagar will bring together cinematic talent from across India. It will embody the spirit of 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat'," the ministry said.