On Saturday, the 72nd National Film Awards were announced by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in New Delhi. The awards recognised films certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for releases between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024. Presided over by an 11-member jury headed by filmmaker Jayaraj, who was also the Chairperson of the Feature Film Jury, the National Film Awards were evaluated from a list of over 400 films across 34 languages.
Hindi cinema dominated the feature film section with nine entries, which includes Article 370 winning the Best Feature Film Award. The political action thriller also won the Best Actress Award for Yami Gautam’s performance. Veteran actor Mammootty won the Best Actor Award for the period horror, Bramayugam (Malayalam). This is the fourth National Award for the legendary actor, who first won the award in 1989 for Mathilukal and Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, then in 1993 for Ponthan Mada and Vidheyan, and then for Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in 1998. The veteran shared his 2026 win with Kartik Aaryan, who won the award for his performance in the sports drama, Chandu Champion (Hindi). Another category that saw the two winners sharing the award was for the Best Actress in a Supporting role, which was won by Sachana Namidass for her performance in Maharaja (Tamil) and Ropashree Varkady for Mithya (Kannada). The Best Actor in a Supporting role went to Sanjay Mishra for the OTT film Bhakshak (Hindi). The polarising biographical film Swatantrya Veer Savarkar (Hindi), directed by Randeep Hooda, won the Best Debut Film of a Director Award.
Telugu cinema closely followed Hindi films in the feature films winners list, with the sci-fi dystopian film, Kalki 2898 AD, winning the Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. The film also won the Best Production Design Award. Under the Best Screenplay Award section, Bandreddi Sukumar won Best Screenplay Writing (Original) for Pushpa (The Rule Part - 02) (Telugu), Venky Atluri won Best Dialogue Writing for Lucky Baskhar (Telugu), while Yogesh Deshpande won Best Screenplay Writer (Adapted) for Swargandharva Sudhir Phadke (Marathi). Interestingly, Amaran (Tamil), the biographical war film about the late Major Mukund Varadarajan, won the Best Director Award (Rajkumar Periasamy) and Best Editor Award (for R Kalaivannan), while the period action drama, Captain Miller (Tamil), won the award for Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values. Amaran also won the Best Music Director (Background Music) for GV Prakash Kumar. This is the second National Award for the composer; he first bagged the award for the Suriya-starrer, Soorarai Pottru in 2020. The Best Music Director (songs) went to Shashwat Sachdev for his work in Shashwat Sachdev.35 Chinna Katha Kaadu (Telugu) won the Best Children’s Film, while Abhay Jodhpurkar won the Best Male Playback Singer for Gharat Ganpati (Marathi) and Vaikom Vijayalakshmi won the Best Female Playback Singer for A. R. M (Malayalam). Malayalam cinema also won the Best Cinematography Award, for Shehnad Jalal’s work in Bramayugam. Stunt choreographer Anl Arasu won the Best Action Direction for his work in Maharaja (Tamil). Best Sound Design went to Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 (Hindi), while Best Make-up went to Committee Kurrollu (Telugu), Best Choreography to Stree 2 (Hindi), Best Lyrics to Maidaan (Hindi), and Best Costume Design to Pushpa (The Rule Part - 02) (Telugu). Best Child Artist Award was shared between Athish S Shetty, Arundev Pothula and Riddhiman Banerjee, Tapomoy Deb, and Gitashree Chakraborty, for their works in Mithya (Kannada), 35 Chinna Katha Kaadu (Telugu), and Onko Ki Kothin (Bengali), respectively.
While Dhanush’s Raayan won the Best Tamil Film Award, Committee Kurrollu bagged the Best Telugu Film Award, Mithya won the Best Kannada Film Award, and the Best Malayalam Film Award went to Feminichi Fathima. The highly anticipated Tamil film, Meiyazhagan, was relegated to Special Mentions for its Sound Mixing work by Suren G. Dhanush also got a special mention for his work in Captain Miller. He earlier won as a producer for Kaaka Muttai (2014) and Visaranai (2015), and as an actor for Aadukalam (2010) and Asuran (2019).
The 72nd National Film Awards largely followed its predecessor’s pattern of Hindi cinema winning big, controversial entries in the winners list, and regional films that took their respective industries by storm, staying in the shadows on the national stage.
