As the 63rd National Awards rolled out on Monday, it came as no surprise when SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus Baahubali: The Beginning bagged the award for the Best Feature Film.
Actor Prabhas, who portrayed the title character was elated at the news and said, “It is overwhelming that Baahubali has been recognised as the Best Film at the National Awards. Playing the role of Baahubali was one of the most special things in my career. I’m very thankful to Rajamouli sir to have the faith in me to
play such an important part of the film.”
While Amitabh Bachchan picked up the Best Actor award for Piku, Kangna Ranaut said that being recognised as the Best Actress for Tanu Weds Manu Returns was “the best birthday gift.” Interestingly, these two movies also picked up two awards in the same category jointly — the Best Screenplay Writer (original) and the Best Screenplay (dialogues) to Juhi Chaturvedi for Piku and Himanshu Sharma for Tanu Weds Manu Returns.
Sanjay leela Bhansali’s magnum opus Bajirao Mastani picked up four awards
becoming the only movie to have done so.
The awards went to Bhansali for Best Director, Tanvi Azmi for Best Supporting Actress, Remo D’Souza for Best Choreographer for Deewani mastani and Sudeep Chatterjee for Best Cinematography.
Dum laga Ke Haisha was awarded the Best Hindi Film while Bajrangi Bhaijaan was honoured for Best Popular Film providing wholesome entertainment.
“It is one of the greatest films I think of its time it spoke a lot about humanity, love support and integrity. So I am very proud to be a part of it. It was great working with Kabir and Salman, who actually believed in the script and made it happen,” Kareena Kapoor said at an event in Delhi.
It is Kabir Khan’s second National Award after Kabul Express and he said, “I’m
very happy for getting honoured with this the second time. National Awards are the only relevant awards left today in the country.”
Ritika Singh, kick boxer-turned actress, was also recognised under Special Mention category for her performance in Tamil sports drama Irudhi Suttru. She called the honour as equal to winning an Oscar.
“I’m speechless. This is like bagging an Oscar award. I need to thank the entire team of Irudhi Suttru for this honour. To be bestowed upon with such an award for your first film means a lot, and I consider this an impetus to do better work,” she said.
Veteran Bengali director Goutam Ghosh, was happy with the award bestowed to Sankhachil, an India-Bangladesh joint production, under the Best Bengali Film category, and hoped that the recognition will help strengthen the international market for cinema from the region.
“Joint productions are important culturally. I hope it encourages more joint ventures not just between West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh but (also between) Bengalis living in different parts of the world. We are trying to create an international market for Bengali cinema,” Ghose said.