Alia Bhatt, Kriti Sanon, Allu Arjun win big at national film awards

Alia Bhatt and Kriti Sanon won the best actor (female) for their roles in Gangubai Kathiawadi and Mimi, respectively, while Telugu actor Allu Arjun won the best actor (male) award for his film Pushpa: The Rise at the 69^th National Film Awards announced on Thursday.

Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, which is based on the life of an Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) scientist, won the best feature film award, while Nikhil Mahajan won the best director award for his Marathi film, Godavari.

S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR, which had won big in the global arena by bringing home the Oscar and the Golden Globe in the best song category for Naatu Naatu, continued its winning streak on the national stage.

The Telugu film, which is a fictitious take on two freedom fighters, won awards for best music director (M.M Keeravaani), best special effects (V. Srinivas Mohan), best choreography (Prem Rakshith), best male playback singer (Kaala Bhairava for the song Maayava Chaayava) and best action direction (King Solomon). It also won the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment.

Shoojit Sircar’s historical drama, Sardar Udham, was adjudged the best Hindi film and was awarded best cinematography (Avik Mukhopadhyay), best audiography (Sinoy Joseph), best production design (Dmitrii Malich and Mansi Dhruv Mehta) and best costume design (Veera Kapur Ee).

Vivek Agnihotri’s Kashmir Files won the Nargis Dutt Award for best feature film on national integration. Shershaah, starring Siddharth Kapoor and Kiara Advani, and based on Indian Army officer Vikram Batra, claimed the Special Jury award.

Pallavi Joshi won the best actor in supporting role (female) award for Kashmir Files, while Pankaj Tripathi won the best actor in supporting role (male) award for his performance in Mimi.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali won the award for best editing for the film Gangubai Kathiawadi, which also won the award for best screenplay (Bhansali and Utkarshini Vashishta).

The 69^th National Film Awards 2021 were selected by an 11-member jury headed filmmaker Ketan Mehta.

To be sure, the awards for the 69^th edition were given for films that released in 2021, and the awards for the films that were released in 2022 are expected to be declared in a few weeks.