Bollywood actress Vidya Balan received her maiden Best Actress award at the 59th National Film Awards on Thursday.
She and other talents from India’s $2-billion Indian movie industry received the honours from Vice President Hamid Ansari.
Top honours, including best feature film, best direction and best actor titles, were bagged by regional talents. Vidya came on the dais in a rose pink-coloured sari with her hair neatly tied in a bun to receive the award for her portrayal of South siren Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture.
Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee was also honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke, the highest honour in Indian cinema at the event.
Regional cinema dominated the award function, while Bollywood maintained a low key this year.
The ceremony, hosted by actors Vinay Pathak and Saumya Tandon, witnessed performances by Anand Bhate, who won the best playback singer (male) title for ‘Balgandharva’, and Roopa Ganguly, who won the same award in the female category for the Bengali film ‘Abosheyshey’.
Bollywood composer Amit Trivedi and lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya also took to the stage to perform ‘Agar zindagi’, for which the latter won the best lyricist trophy. The song is from the movie “I Am”.
The best feature film award was shared by Marathi film “Deool” and Kannada movie “Byari”, while the best direction award went to Gurvinder Singh for his Punjabi film “Anhe Ghorey Da Daan”, which also won the best cinematography title.
Marathi actor Girish Kulkarni came to accept his best actor trophy for his role as a good-hearted simpleton in “Deool”.
In the music category, composer Neel Dutt won the best songs award for Bengali rock musical “Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbo Na”. Mayookh Bhaumik bagged the background score honour for Bengali film “Laptop”.
Kumararaja Thiagarajan won the Indira Gandhi Award for best debut film of a director for “Aaranyakandam”, while the award for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment went to Tamil film “Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai”.
Acclaimed filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli picked his 12th National Film Award at the event for “Kurmavatara”, adjudged the best Kannada film.
Traditionally, the awards are given out by the President. But Pratibha Patil, whose term is about to end in July, is currently on vacation so Ansari filled in her boots at the Vigyan Bhawan.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, too was present at the occasion, which saw key members of the country’s film fraternity.
——Agencies