Southern cinema grabbed centerstage winning a clutch of major awards in the India’s 70th National Film Awards. The best feature film award went to the Malayalam movie “Aattam: The Play”, while Rishabh Shetty received the best actor award for the Kannada hit “Kantara.” Best actress prize was shared by Nithya Menen for the Tamil film “Thiruchitrambalam” and Manasi Parekh for the Gujarati movie “Kutch Express”.
Sooraj R Barjatya (Hum Aapke Hain Koun) seized the best director award for “Uunchai”, marking Bollywood’s presence among the top categories. Nina Gupta received the best supporting award for the same film while Pavan Malhotra, known for his riveting performances in films such as Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro and Bagh Bahadur, earned the supporting actor award for Haryanvi film, Fouja.
The jury members presented the list of winners for 2022 to Union I&B minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday.
Malayalam cinema led the charge, winning eight awards, including for best child actor, best screenplay, and best editing. Overall, 20 south Indian films bagged awards across various categories in the feature film segment.
In the feature film category, out of the 24 awards, excluding the sub-category of best feature film in each language, 20 awards were shared by Malayalam, Haryanvi, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, and Bengali movies. Only six awards were bagged by three Hindi films, with two being shared with other regional language movies.
“Fouja” won two other awards: best debut film by a director for Pramod Kumar and best lyrics by Naushad Sadar Khan.
The 70th National Film Awards has highlighted the growing prominence of cinema from the Southern states.
A R Rahman won the National Film Award for best music director (background music) for his work in Mani Ratnam’s “Ponniyin Selvan-Part 1”, which was also named the best Tamil film. Pritam got the award for best music director (songs) for “Brahmastra-Part 1”.
