The award ceremony for this year’s National Film Awards, was held in New Delhi on Tuesday and the winners were felicitated by President Droupadi Murmu.
Rishab Shetty was awarded with Best Actor title for ‘Kantara’ whereas Nithya Menen and Manasi Parekh won the Best Actress awards.
Nithya Menen won it for the Tamil film ‘Thiruchitrambalam’ and Manasi for the Gujarati film ‘Kutch Express’.
Veteran filmmaker Mani Ratnam won the Best Tamil Film award for ‘Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1’ whereas AR Rahman won Best Music Director for the same film.
Mani Ratnam expressed his gratitude about winning a National Award for Ponniyin Selvan and reflected upon his struggle to make the film.
“It’s a very special film because it comes from a huge classic novel, which has been popular for over 50 years. It’s probably the most loved Tamil novel. It’s been a dream for me to do this project. I tried to make it 3–4 times before. So, I am glad I got it. I am glad that my work is recognised, and I’m getting a National Award for it,” he said before the ceremony.
AR Rahman also spoke about his win and said, “It feels like everything has come full circle—my first was for Mani Ratnam, and now the second one is for him again. This makes it even more special.”
It may be noted that actress Kushboo who was present during the award ceremony gave a standing ovation when Mani Ratnam received his award.