National Awards 2018: Winners upset about President Kovind handing over only 11 awards

The National Award winners will be honoured at Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi on Thursday but after well-choreographed rehearsals on Wednesday, the awardees were in for a rude shock when they discovered that President Ram Nath Kovind will be handing over only 11 awards out of 140 winners, 

As per Mumbai Mirror report, the majority of the winners will be awarded by by Information & Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Minister of State, Information & Broadcasting, and Narendra Kumar Sinha, Secretary, Information & Broadcasting. 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. National Award winners this year will be posing for the customary photo-op with President in groups of 45 as well.

This hasn't gone down well with winners who have threatened to boycott the ceremony as they find it insulting to change the 64 year old custom which has been maintained ever since the inception of awards since 1954. According to Mumbai daily's sources, the awardees also caught up with Smriti Irani who told them that the President has only allotted them one hour for the ceremony, hence they had to ask other ministers to pitch in to hand over the rest of the awards. Reportedly, awardees also recommended that that the time for speeches and photo-ops could be reduced to accommodate facilitation of winners by the President himself. 

I&B Minister confirmed to Mumbai Mirror that she will be handing over 75 awards and said, “Handing out over 75 awards in various categories followed by photographs with every winner is time-consuming."

Here's a look at the list of National Film Award winners in feature film category :

Dadasaheb Phalke Award: Vinod Khanna

Best Feature Film: Village Rockstars (Assamese)

Best Popular Film: Baahubali 2 (Telugu)

Best Director: Jayaraj for Bhayanakam (Malayalam)

Best Actress: Sridevi, Mom (Hindi)

Best Actor: Ridhhi Sen, Nagarkirtan (Bengali)

Best Supporting Actress: Divya Dutta, Irada (Hindi)

Best Supporting Actor: Fahad Faazil, Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (Malayalam)

Best Film Playback Singer: Shasha Tirupati (Vaan Varuvaan song)

Best Male Playback Singer: KJ Yesudas

Best Film for National Integration - Dhappa (Marathi)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Bhayanakam (Malayalam), to Jayaraj

Best Screenplay Original: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

Best Assamese Film: Ishu

Best Odiya Film: Hello Arsi

Best Marathi Film: Kaccha Limbu

Best Malayalam Film: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum 

Best Tamil Film: To-Let

Best Kannada Film: Hebettu Ramakka

Best Telugu Film: Ghazi

Best Hindi Film: Newton

Best Bengali Film: Mayurakshi

Best Gujarati Film: Dhh

Best Tulu Film: Paddayi

Best Ladakhi Film: Walking With The Wind

Best Jasari Film: Sinjar

Best Action Direction: Baahubali 2

Best Choreography: Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (Hindi) to Ganesh Acharya

Best Special Effects: Baahubali 2

Special Jury Award: Nagarkirtan

Best Lyrics for Song Muthu Ratna, for Kannada film March 22

Best Music Direction: A R Rahman for Kaatru Veliyidai

Background score: A R Rahman for Mom

Best Make Up Artist - Ram Razak, Nagarkirtan

Best Production Design: Santhosh Raman, Take Off (Malayalam)

Best Editing: Rima Das, Village Rockstars

Best Book on Cinema: first book on Manipuri films. This is the first time that a book on Manipuri Films has got award

Best Film Critic: Giridhar Jha

Special Mention for Film Criticism: Sunil Mishra of Madhya Pradesh

Special Mention Awards: Marathi Film - Mhorkya; Odiya Film: Hello Arsi; Malayalam: Take Off; Pankaj Tripathi for Hindi film Newton; Malayalam actor Parvathy too received a special mention for Take Off.