Keerthy Suresh, Ayushmann Khurrana, Vicky Kaushal win big at National Film Awards 2019

The 66th National Film Awards for the year 2019 was announced today at Shastri Bhavan, Delhi. The top honours for Best Actor were shared by Ayushmann Khurrana (Andhadhun) and Vicky Kaushal (Uri). Keerthy Suresh bagged the Best Actress award for the Telugu film Mahanati, a biopic based on yesteryear actor Savithri. Best Director was awarded to Aditya Dhar for his debut feature, Uri: Surgical Strike.

The Best Feature Film honour went to Hellaro, a Gujarati film directed by Abhishek Shah. MJ Radhakrishnan bagged the Best Cinematography award for the Malayalam film Olu, while Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti got the nod for the Best Debut Director for his Marathi film Naal.

Andhadhun was picked as the Best Hindi Film, while Mahanati walked away with the Best Telugu Film award. Sudani From Nigeria was tapped for the Best Malayalam Film and Baaram was adjudged the Best Tamil Film. Badhaai Ho was named the Best Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.

The supporting actor honours went to Surekha Sikri for Badhaai Ho and Swanand Kirkire for the Marathi film Chumbak.

The award list for this year has a healthy representation of South Indian cinema. Chi La Sow, written by directed by Rahul Ravindran, was given the Best Original Screenplay (Andhadhun won the Best Adapted Screenplay category). The Kannada film Nathicharami also fetched awards for Best Lyrics, Best Editing, and also the Best Female Playback Singer (Bindhu Malini for the song Maayavi Manave). KGF walked away with the Best Stunt Choreographer award (Vikram More and Anbu Ariv)  and also bagged the Best Special Effects, which it shared with the Telugu film Awe. Mahanati also fetched the Best Costume Design award for Gaurang Shah.

Sruthi Hariharan (Nathicharami), Joju George (Joseph), Savithri Sreedharan, (Sudani From Nigeria), and Chandrachoor Rai (Kadak) received special mention from the jury for acting in the feature film category.

One of the most controversial releases in recent times, Padmaavat bagged awards for Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Best Music Direction: Songs), Arijit Singh (Best Male Playback Singer), Kruti Mahesh Midya and Jyoti D Tommar (Best Choreography for the song Ghoomar).

Akshay Kumar’s Padman won the Best Film on Social Issues, while the Best Film on Environmental Conservation went to Marathi film Paani.

The new award which was instituted to acknowledge film friendliness of states went to Uttarakhand this year.

The Best Children's Film was bagged by the Kannada film Sarkari Area Prathamika Shaale Kasaragod, while Sarala Virala (non-feature), also a Kannada film, walked away with the Best Educational Film. For the first time, the Best Child Artist award was shared by four people —  PV Rohith (Kannada), Sameep Singh (Punjabi), Talha Arshad Reshi (Urdu), and Shrinivas Pokale (Marathi).

Uri: The Surgical Strike also fetched Bishwadeep Chatterjee the award for sound design, Malayalam film Kammara Sambhavam bagged the one for production design, and the Bengali film Tarikh won the award for dialogues. 

Here are some of the awards in the other categories:

Best Rajasthani Film: Turtle
Best Marathi Film: Bhonga
Best Urdu Film: Hamid
Best Assamese Film: Bulbul Can Sing
Best Punjabi Film: Harjeeta
Best Konkani Film: Amori
Best Bengali Film: Ek Je Chhilo Raja
Best Sherdukpan Film: Mishing
Best Pangchenpa Film: In The Land of Poison Women

Best Non-Feature Film - Son Rise and The Secret Life of Frogs
Best Environment Film (non-feature category) - Subbiah Nallamuthu's The World's Most Famous Tiger
Best Promotional Film (non-feature category) - Avinash Maurya and Kriti Gupta's Rediscovering Jalam
Best Science & Technology Film (Non-Feature Category) - G.D Naidu: The Edison of India
Best Arts and Culture Film - Bunkar: The Last of The Varanasi Weavers
Best Debut Non-Feature Film of a Director - Feluda: 50 Years of Ray's Detective