Political drama Article 370 emerged as the biggest winner at the 72nd National Film Awards, securing the Best Feature Film award, reports Variety.
The film’s lead star Yami Gautam won Best Actress, India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced on Saturday.
Directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale and produced by Jio Studios and B62 Studios, Article 370 centres on the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Best Actor award went jointly to Mammootty for the Malayalam film Bramayugam and Kartik Aaryan for the Hindi sports drama Chandu Champion.
Rajkumar Periasamy won Best Director for the Tamil-language film Amaran, while Randeep Hooda received the Best Debut Director award for Swatantrya Veer Savarkar.
In the supporting acting categories, Sachana Namidass won Best Supporting Actress for the Tamil film Maharaja, sharing the honour with Ropashree Varkady for the Kannada film Mithya.
Sanjay Mishra claimed Best Supporting Actor for the Hindi film Bhakshak.
Telugu blockbuster Kalki 2898 AD won the award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.
Tamil film Captain Miller received the award for Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values.
Telugu-language film 35 – Chinna Katha Kaadu won Best Children’s Film.
Among non-feature films, Bhangaar, directed by Sumira Roy, won Best Non-Feature Film, while Bharatbala Ganapathy’s Ram-Nami secured the Best Documentary award.
Technical honours recognised several films across Indian cinema. Shehnad Jalal won Best Cinematography for Bramayugam, while R. Kalaivannan received Best Editing for Amaran.
The Best Screenplay awards went to Bandreddi Sukumar for Original Screenplay (Pushpa: The Rule Part 2), Yogesh Deshpande for Adapted Screenplay (Swargandharva Sudhir Phadke), and Venky Atluri for Dialogue (Lucky Baskhar).
Shashwat Sachdev won Best Music Direction for the songs in Article 370, while G.V. Prakash Kumar received the award for Best Background Score for Amaran.
Manoj Muntashir won Best Lyrics for Maidaan, Vijay Ganguly took Best Choreography for Stree 2, and Anl Arasu won Best Action Direction for Maharaja.
Special mentions in the feature film category went to actor Dhanush for Captain Miller and sound mix engineer Suren G. for Meiyazhagan.
The feature film awards were selected by a central jury chaired by filmmaker Jayaraj.
Aseem Sinha headed the non-feature film jury, while A. Chandrasekhar chaired the Best Writing on Cinema jury.
