With the 65th National Film Awards set to be presented in New Delhi on Thursday, the ceremony is mired in fresh controversy. Recipients of the awards are disappointed that President Ram Nath Kovind will present the award to only 11 of the 137 awardees.
The winners were informed of this development only during the dress rehearsals on Wednesday. Traditionally, the awards are presented by the president personally every year.
The awardees were told that the rest of the National Film Awards would be handed over by Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Smriti Irani, Minister of State for I&B Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, and the I&B ministry's secretary Narendra Kumar Sinha. The president will arrive after most of the awards have been handed out, will present 11 awards, and then will have a photo-op with the winners in groups of 45, according to a report in the Mumbai Mirror.
According to reports, the ceremony will begin in the afternoon where most of them will be presented with the awards between 3.30 pm and 5.30pm while Kovind will arrive at the award ceremony by 5.30pm.
According to reports, Smriti Irani visited Vigyan Bhavan on Wednesday, and met some of the winners to ease the disappointment. However, that doesn't seemed to have helped as the new development has led to boycott calls from some of the awardees who are miffed at the violation of a tradition that has been in place since the inception of the National Film Awards in 1954.
The winners of the National Film Awards 2018 were declared on April 13 by a jury headed by renowned filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. The 10-member panel comprises screenwriter Imtiaz Hussain, lyricist Mehboob, actress Gautami Tadimalla and Kannada director P. Sheshadri among others. Sridevi posthumously bagged the award for best actress (Mom), and Bengali actor Riddhi Sen was declared best actor (Nagarkirtan).
Malayalam actor Fahadh Faasil bagged the award for Best Male Supporting Actor for Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum. Divya Dutta bagged the award for Best Female Supporting Actor for Irada. Assamese film Village Rockstars bagged the award for best film. Best Director Award went to Jayaraj for Malayalam film Bhayanakam.
Veteran singer K.J. Yesudas was recognised as the best male singer for his song Poy Maranja Kalam in the Malayalam film Viswasapoorvam Mansoor, while the best female singer went to Shashaa Tirupati for the song Vaan for Kaatru Veliyidai.
Actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna, who died last year, has been conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke Award—the highest cinema honour in India— posthumously.