'Kanchivaram' Best Movie at National Film Awards

Tamil actor Prakash Raj beat off competition from Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan to bag the Best Actor award for his role in 'Kanchivaram', which depicts the lives of silk weavers of Kanchipuram during the pre-Independence era. Raj had earlier won the Best Supporting Actor award for his 'Iruvar' in 1998 and also a special Jury Award in 2003.

Veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan has got the Best Director's award for his film 'Naalu Pennungal'. This will be his seventh national award. He was named among the host of other winners of the National Film Awards announced for the year 2007 by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting here today.

Actress Umashree has bagged the Best Actress award for her performance in Girish Kasaravalli's Kannada film 'Gulabi Talkies', which depicts the transformation of the people of a small fishing village after their exposure to colour television.

The Best Child Actor award has gone to Sharad Goyekar for his role in the Marathi film 'Tingya'.

Actor Darshan Zariwala has won the best supporting actor award for his role in Feroz Abbas Khan's film 'Gandhi- My Father', which is the only Hindi film to bag two more awards for Best Screenplay for Khan and Special Jury award.

Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'Chak De India' bagged the national award in the Wholesome Entertainment Category, while Aamir Khan-directed 'Taare Zameen Par' won the award in Family Welfare Category.

Playback singer Shankar Mahadevan won the award for the song "Maa" in the film 'Taare Zameen Par', while Prasoon Joshi won the award for the Best Lyrics for the same song.
Filmmaker Sai Paranjpe headed the jury for feature film category, documentary filmmaker Ashoke Viswanathan chaired the jury for the non-film category and writer Namita Gokhale chaired the jury for best writing on Indian films.

The winners were selected from among 102 films and 106 non-feature films. Sources in the ministry said though the list had been finalised last week, the announcement was deferred due to the death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S R Reddy.