Read on to know which filmmaker has won the National Film Award for Best Direction six times in his career, the most by any Indian director.
National Film Award is the most respectable honour an Indian film artiste can receive in their career. The National Film Award for Best Direction was instituted in 1967 in the fifteenth edition and it's worth noting that the first recipient has won the most awards in this category, a total of six times.
It is none other than the legendary film director Satyajit Ray, who has directed some of the most critically acclaimed films in the history of Indian cinema. Ray, who was awarded an Academy Honoary award and India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 1992, has won a total of 36 National Film Awards, out of which six have been as Best Director.
Satyajit Ray won the first National Film Award for Best Direction for Chiriyakhana in 1967 and repeated his achievement in the next year with Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne in 1968. In 1970, Ray won his third National Film Award as Best Director for Pratidwandi. His fourth and fifth honours came in 1974 and 1975 for Sonar Kella and Jana Aranya, respectively. In 1991, he received his sixth Best Director National Film Award for his last film Agantuk. All of Ray's awards have been for his Bengali films.
Talking about the other major winners in the same category, Adoor Gopalakrishnan has been honoured with the National Film Award for Best Direction five times. Mrinal Sen and G. Aravind have won four and three awards, respectively. Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, and Jayaraj have won the National Film Award for Best Direction twice.
It's surprising that Mani Ratnam and SS Rajamouli haven't yet won the Best Director award at National Film Awards. Shyam Benegal has won it once for his film Trikal in 1985. A few popular Bollywood directors who have been awarded with honour include Madhur Bhandarkar, Hansal Mehta, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
READ | Not Kangana Ranaut, Vidya Balan, Tabu or Dimple Kapadia, this actress has won most National Film Awards for Best Actress
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 "Most National Film Awards for Best Director/File photo")
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