The celebrations marking 100 years of Indian cinema have seen a colourful start when the President honoured the winners of the 60th National Film Awards here.
The release of postal stamps of the 50 iconic personalities of the Indian cinema was the highlight of the star-studded function. The postal stamps were of the personalities such as Ashok Kumar, Bhalji Pendharkar, Durga Khote, Dev Annad, Yash Chopra, Smita Patil, Rajesh Khanna, Shammi Kapoor, Suraiya, Geeta Dutt, Sohrab Modi, Tapan Sinha, C V Sridhar and Bhanumathi.
Interestingly, to mark the beginning of the celebrations, the government has announced a new award -- Centenary Award -- that would recognise a paradigm transformation in film making and honouring individuals or films that had profoundly influenced contemporary, socio-cultural evolution.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Minish Tiwari has announced that to encourage parallel cinema, the government has been planning an image-makeover of the Mahadev Auditorium in Delhi. In his speech, the minister also paid tributes to Sarabjit Singh. At the award function, Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner actor Pran was missed as he could not travel to Delhi to receive the award. Irrfan Khan, who essayed the role of Army athlete-turned-dacoit ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ in the eponymous film, received the best actor award that he shared with Vikram Gokhle for a Marathi film ‘Anumati’. The award for the best actress was conferred on Usha Jadhav for her performance in Dhag (Marathi). The award for the best supporting actor was conferred on Anu Kapur for the film ‘Vicky Donor’.
The award for the best supporting actress has been shared by Dolly Ahluwalia for the film ‘Vicky Donor’ and Kalpana for the film ‘Thanichalla Njan’ (Malyalam). The best child artist award has been shared by Master Virendra Pratap for ‘Dekh Indian Circus’ (Hindi) and Master Minon for ‘101 Chodiyangal’ (Malayalam).
The award for the best male playback singer has been conferred on Shankar Mahadevan for the song ‘Bolo Na’ from the film ‘Chittagong’. The award for the best female playback singer has been conferred on ‘Aarti Ankalikar-Tikekar for the song ‘Palakein Naa Moon Don’ from the film ‘Samhita’ (Marathi).
The award for the best screen play writer (original) has been conferred on Sujoy Ghosh for the film ‘Kahaani’.