The biggest highlights of the 65th National Awards were the posthumous awards for Sridevi and Vinod Khanna. While Khanna was awarded the highest film honour of the country – the Dadasaheb Phalke award, Sridevi won Best Actress for her 2017 film Mom.
ALSO READ: 65th National Awards: Sridevi Wins Best Actress Posthumously For MOM
After making her comeback in Gauri Shinde’s English Vinglish, the late actor made a brave choice by starring in the morally ambiguous revenge-thriller directed by Ravi Udyawar.
Here’s a full list of winners:
- Assamese indie Village Rockstars, that made quite a bit of noise last year, won Best Feature film along with Best Child Artiste for the young Bhanita Das. It also won in the categories of Best Editing and Best Sound.
- Baahubali: The Conclusion won the Best Popular Film, along with awards for action-direction and VFX.
- Amit Masurkar’s Newton won the Best Hindi film along with a special mention for actor Pankaj Tripathi (who arguably was the best thing about the much-acclaimed film).
- Jury head and filmmaker extraordinaire Shekhar Kapur had a few special things to say about the excellent standard set by the regional films this year, giving a shout-out to Sinjar (from Lakshadweep), that won the Best Jasari film a Best Director (debut).
- The director of Bandit Queen, who hasn’t made a film in India for more than two decades now was quoted as saying, “It’s time to make a film in India because the standard of regional cinema is world beating.”
- AR Rahman won Best Music for his score in Mani Ratnam’s Kaatru Veliyidai. Shasha Tirupathi won Best Female Playback for her song Vaan Varuvaan from the same film. Yesudas won Best Male Playback.
- Parvathy has also won a special mention for her role in the stunning Malayalam film Take Off. This is the same film whose central conflict was borrowed by Salman Khan-starrer Tiger Zinda Hai. The severely-underrated Divya Dutta won Best Supporting Actress for Irada, while Fahad Fazil won Best Supporting Actor for Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (which also went on to win Best Malayalam film).
- Dhh won Best Gujarati Film; Hebbettu Ramakka won Best Kannada Film. Mayurakshi, starring Prosenjit and Soumitra Chatterjee, won Best Bengali Film; Ishu won Best Assamese Film. Kachha Nimbu won Best Marathi Film; To Let won Best Tamil Film; Rana Daggubati’s Ghazi won Best Telugu Film.
The 65th National Awards will be held on May 3.
