A biopic based on the life of army athlete-turned-dacoit Paan Singh Tomar won the best National Film Award in the 2012 awards list announced here on Monday. The award meant that Paan Singh Tomar was the first Hindi movie in eight years to receive the honour. Irrfan Khan won the best actor award for Tomar’s role.
Even as the top honours went to Paan Singh Tomar, several meaningful films from south India bagged other awards.
Vazhakku Enn 18/9 won the best Tamil film award, and the best make-up artist award was bagged by Raja for the same film; Vishwaroopam won the best choreography award (Pt Birju Maharaj) and the best production design award (Lalgudi N Ilayaraja). Paradesi bagged the best costume design award (Poornima Ramaswamy).
Malayalam films won 13 awards in different categories. Chittagong (Hindi) and 101 Chodiyangal (Malayalam) shared the award for the best debut film of a director. Based on the freedom struggle, Chittagong was directed by Bedabrata Pain, while 101 Chodiyangal is based on the special relation between a precocious child and his teacher.
The jury headed by filmmaker Basu Chatterjee chose 38 films from 14 languages for awards in various categories.
The jury conferred joint winners for many categories, thus widening the ambit of the awardees. The jury also awarded the ‘best popular film for providing wholesome entertainment’ to Vicky Donor (Hindi) and Ustad Hotel (Malayalam).
The awards will be given away by President Pranab Mukherjee on May 3.