Indian National Film Awards

SS Rajamouli's magnum opus “Baahubali” was declared as the Best Film at 63rd National Film Awards announced yesterday. Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan won the Best Actor award for his role in “Piku” while Kangana Ranaut won Best Actress.

Ranaut won the award for her role in romantic comedy drama “Tanu Weds Manu Returns” for her endearing dual turn as Tanu, a troublesome wife and Haryanvi sportsperson Datto.

Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali won Best Director for “Bajirao Mastani”.

This is Amitabh Bachchan's fourth national award. The actor previously won best actor for “Agneepath” (1990), “Black” (2005) and “Paa” (2009) respectively. Ranaut also marked her third national award, second as best actress. She earlier won Best Supporting Actress for “Fashion” (2008) and best actress for “Queen”.

Salman Khan's “Bajrangi Bhaijaan” was unsurprisingly named Best Popular Film at the Awards.

Ayushmann Khurranna and Bhumi Pednekar's “Dum Laga Ke  Haisha” won the best Hindi film, while best Malayalam film went to “Pathemari”, an artistically narrated saga of two generations of Malayali workers who migrated to gulf for livelihood.

 “Masaan” brought best debut director award to Neeraj Ghaywan. Best adapted screenplay honours went to Vishal Bhardwaj for real-life inspired crime drama “Talvar”, while the best original screenplay and dialogue was shared between Juhi Chaturvedi (“Piku”) and Himanshu Sharma (“Tanu Weds Manu Returns”).

Monali Thakur won Best singer for her song “Moh Moh Ke Dhage” (from “Dum Laga Ke Haisha”). Best cinematography went to “Bajirao Mastani”. Remo D'Souza won best choreographer for his song “Deewani Mastani” from “Bajirao Mastani”.