In the 69th National Film Awards for the year 2021 announced, feature film ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’  and actors Allu Arjun (‘Pushpa: The Rise part 1’), Alia Bhatt (‘Gangubai’) and Kriti Sanon (‘Mimi’) won top honours.

‘Rocketry’ won the best Feature Film Award, while Arjun, Bhatt and Sanon were awarded the best Actor and Actresses awards, respectively.

‘Ek Tha Gaon’ by Srishti Lakhera won best Non-feature Film Award, while ‘The Kashmir Files’ was awarded with the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.

Pankaj Tripathi was declared the Best Supporting Actor, while Pallavi Joshi won the Best Supporting Actress Awards.

According to a Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) statement, the Jury for the 69th National Film Awards announced the winners for the year 2021 yesterday.

Ahead of the announcement, the chairperson and other jury members called on the Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur and presented him with the selections for the awards.

The Minister said, “It was a very tough competition between all the films in every category. My congratulations and best wishes are with the winners. Today, India is the largest film maker in the world. We have the potential to become the content hub of the world. This is our time. Today our films are being recognised all over the world, be it BAFTA or the Oscars.”

Oscar winner ‘RRR’ has bagged the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. The full list of winners could be seen here: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1951758 .

Meanwhile, according to a PTI report from Mumbai, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali said good cinema gets acknowledged and a pat on the back from a respectful jury always brings joy, after his lavishly-mounted period biopic ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ won five National Film Awards, including best actress honour for Bhatt.

Bhansali won two awards — for best screenplay writer (adapted) along with Utkarshini Vashishtha and best editing for the film. The film’s other awards were for best dialogue writer for Vashishtha and Prakash Kapadia and best make-up artist for Preetisheel Singh D’souza.

“I’m happy for everybody who has won, my film and other films, and everybody, who has won. Good cinema gets acknowledged and a pat on the back from the government, and nationally and from a respectful jury, it always brings you joy,” Bhansali told PTI.

“As far as cinema is celebrated from all over India, it is a wonderful moment for all of us. I’m too happy,” he added.

‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, which had its world premiere at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival, was adapted from a chapter in Hussain Zaidi’s book ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai’.

The magnum opus featured Bhatt in the title role of Gangubai, one of the most powerful, loved and respected madams from Mumbai’s red light area Kamathipura during the 1960s.

The film’s star cast also included Ajay Devgn, Shantanu Maheshwari, Vijay Raaz, Indira Tiwari, Seema Pahwa and Jim Sarbh.