67th National Film Awards: Manoj Bajpayee, Kangana Ranaut receive top honours

The 67th National Film Awards ceremony was held in New Delhi earlier today. Manoj Bajpayee and Kangana Ranaut from Bollywood received the Best Actor and Actress awards respectively from Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.

South star Dhanush also won the Best Actor Award for his role in Asuran, while Rajinikanth was bestowed the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his contributions to Indian cinema.

The 67th National Film Awards recognized films were released in 2019-2020. The winners were announced in March earlier this year. However, the awards ceremony was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kangana was awarded for her performances in Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi and Panga. She had previously won the National Award thrice, for Fashion, Queen and Tanu Weds Manu: Returns. She also has a Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award.

Manoj Bajpayee won for Bhonsle, Devashish Makhija's film about an ageing cop standing up for immigrants in Mumbai.

Nitesh Tiwari's Chhichhore, starring Sushant Singh Rajput in his last theatrical outing, won the Best Hindi film prize. The actor died by suicide in June 2020.

Other wins from Bollywood include Best Dialogue Writer (The Tashkent Files), Best Non-Feature Film (An Engineered Dream), Best Male Playback Singer (Kesari, Teri Mitti), Best Children’s Film (Kastoori), Best Supporting Actress (The Tashkent Files, Pallavi Joshi), Best Film on Social Issues (Holy Rights and Ladli), Best Environment Film (The Stork Saviours) and Best Promotional Film (The Shower).