President confers National Awards on cinematic talent

Bollywood Bubble

May 5, 2014
11:40 am
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President Pranab Mukherjee Saturday honoured cinematic talent from around the country at the 61st National Film Awards ceremony here. Veteran lyricist Gulzar was present to receive the coveted Dada Saheb Phalke Award for the year 2013.

As many as 41 Awards were given away in the non-feature film category; 40 awards were distributed in feature film category; and three awards were bestowed for best writing on cinema, at the ceremony, hosted by actress-singer Raajeshwari Sachdev and news anchor Rini Simon Khanna.

Gulzar, a multi-faceted talent who has also excelled as a director, screenwriter, producer and poet, became the 45th recipient of the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, conferred by the Government of India for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema. The lyricist was accompanied by his proud daughter Meghna.

The event was held Saturday at the capital’s Vigyan Bhawan in the presence of Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari and other officials and dignitaries, as well as cinema talent from Bollywood, the southern and Marathi, Bengali and Assamese cinema.

The event saw live performances by Rupankar and Bela Shinde, who bagged the best male playback singer and best female playback singer awards, respectively. They sang their respective songs which have won them the award – Rupankar crooned “E tumi kemom tumi” from Bengali film “Jaatishwar”, while Shende sang “Khura khura” from the Marathi movie “Tuhya Dharma Koncha”.

“Ship of Theseus”, produced by Recyclewala Films Pvt Ltd. and directed by Anand Gandhi, received the best feature film award while “Rangbhoomi” won the best non-feature film award.

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The Indira Gandhi Award for best debut film of a director was given to Nagraj Manjule for Marathi movie “Fandry”, for which Somnath Avghade won the best child artist award.

Sadhana shared the best child artist honour for Tamil film “Thanga Meengal”.

Rajkummar Rao and Suraj Venjaramoodu shared the award for best actor for their performances in Hindi film “Shahid” and Malayalam film “Perariyathavar”, while actress Geetanjali Thapa has won best actress for Hindi film “Liar’s Dice”.

The audience cheered on as Rajkummar walked up to receive the honour from the president for portraying the real life and late law-abiding lawyer Shahid Azmi, in “Shahid”.

The award for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment has been given to “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”, a biopic on former athlete Milkha Singh. Produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and ROMP Pictures, the movie is directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who was present at the ceremony to receive the honour.

Team “Jolly LLB” walked away with the award for the best hindi film. Produced by Fox Star Studios, the movie, a comical satire on the country’s legal system, is directed by Subhash Kapoor.

For the Nargis Dutt Award for best feature film on national integration, Tamil film “Thalaimuraigal”, produced by Company Productions and directed by Balu Mahendra, was chosen for the year 2013.

The special jury award was given to Marathi film “Yellow”. Producer Riteish Deshmukh received the honour. Hindi film “Miss Lovely” too was lauded with a special jury award.

Inputs By IANS