SRK, Rani Mukerji, Vikrant Massey win top honours

SUperstar shah of iran Rukh Rukh Khan and Vikram Massey shared the charles herbert best worker grant and ranee Mukherji got the best actress title as the 71st National Film Awards, for 2023, were announced in Delhi on Friday.Mukherji was given her first best actress national award for her portrayal of a Bengali immigrant mother fighting for the custody of her children in Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway. Khan won the award-- also a first for him-- for director Atlee’s Hindi debut Jawan and Massey for Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail (Hindi). Jury head and filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker annnounced the awards.In the feature film category, Sudipto Sen bagged the prize for best direction for The Kerala Story, which also was chosen for best cinematography.Jawan also earned singer Shilpa Rao the best female playback singer award for the song “Chaleya”, while the best male playback singer award went to PVN S Rohit for the song “Premisthunna” from the Telugu film Baby.Malayalam actor Vijayaraghavan was named the best supporting actor for his depiction of a nonagenarian in Pookkaalam, along with Muthupettai Somu Bhaskar for the Tamil film Parking. Acclaimed Malayalam actress Urvashi won the best supporting actress title for Ullozhukku, an award she shared with Janki Bodiwala for the Gujarati film Vash.Baby also was the pick for best original screenplay, by Sai Rajesh Neelam, who shared the award with the writer of Parking, Ramkumar Balakrishnan, and dialogue writer Deepak Kingrani for the Hindi film Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai.Director Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar’s Hindi film Flowering Man, which depicts the life of a man’s metamorphosis when a flowering plant begins to sprout from his mouth, was named the best non-feature film. The Film and Television Institute of India produced the film.The Alia Bhatt-Ranveer Singh starrer Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, directed by Karan Johar, was awarded best popular film providing wholesome entertainment, as well as best choreography for the song “Dhindhora Baje”. Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal was recognised for best sound design (Sachin Sudhakaran and Hariharan Muralidharan), best background score (Harshavardhan Rameshwar) and earned a special mention. GV Prakash Kumar earned the best music director (songs) title for the Tamil film Vaathi.Meghna Gulzar’s biographical war drama Sam Bahadur, starring Vicky Kaushal, was picked for promoting national, social and environmental values, and also took home awards for best costume design and best make-up. Rishiraj Agarwal’s God Vulture and Human (English, Hindi and Telugu) won the best documentary award. Satirical comedy-drama Kathal - A Jackfruit Mystery, starring Sanya Malhotra, was the best Hindi film .The awards were not without controversy. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan vehemently criticised the jury’s decision to give two awards to The Kerala Story. The 2023 film tells the fictitious tale of a group of women from Kerala who were forced to convert to Islam and join ISIS.In a Facebook post, the Kerala CM said the film was “built on lies to defame the state and spread communalism”. “By giving awards to such a film, the jury has disrespected the noble traditions of Indian cinema which has always stood for religious brotherhood and national integration,” he wrote.This year, the selection panel received 332 entries in the feature film category, 115 in non-feature films, 27 books, and 16 critics’ submissions. Films certified by the Central Board of Film Certification between January 1, 2023, and December 31,2023, were eligible. The awards are broadly divided into the Swarna Kamal and Rajat Kamal categories, each with a cash prize of ₹3,00,000 and ₹2,00,000, respectively.