National Awards: Alia Bhatt, Kriti Sanon, Allu Arjun bag acting honours as 'Rocketry: The Nambi Effect' wins best film

Meanwhile, the award for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment went to the Telugu version of the multilingual film RRR.

Hindi film ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’ was named the best feature film while Allu Arjun, Alia Bhatt and Kriti Sanon won the top spots in the National Film Awards for 2021 announced on Thursday.

Arjun was adjudged the best actor for his performance in 'Pushpa (The Rise Part 1)' while Bhatt and Sanon shared the honours for the best performance in ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ and ‘Mimi’ respectively. RRR won a total of six awards while Gangubhai Kathiawadi won five awards.

While no Kannada film bagged any big award, Kiranraj-directed 777 Charlie was adjudged the Best Kannada Film. Kannada film critic Subramanya Badoor bagged a special mention in the critic category. The jury received 280 feature films in 28 languages as entries.

In awards announced by well-known filmmaker Ketan Mehta, Pankaj Tripathi was named best supporting actor for 'Mimi' and Pallavi Joshi the best supporting actress for ‘The Kashmir Files’.

Controversial ‘The Kashmir Files’, which is directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, was chosen for the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. Malayalam movie Meppadiyan (Person Above Mentioned) won the Indira Gandhi Award for best debut film of a director (Vishnu Mohan).

RRR makes waves again

‘RRR’ was adjudged the popular film providing wholesome entertainment. It also bagged best male playback singer (Kaala Bhairava), background score (MM Keeravaani), special effects (V Srinivas Mohan), Choreography (Prem Rakshith) and stunt choreographer (King Solomon).

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi won awards for best screenplay writer (adapted -- Bhansali and Utkarshinin Vashishta), and best editing (Bhansali). The Best Dialogue Writer award went to Vashishtha and Prakash Kapadia and Best Make-up artist to Preetisheel Singh D’souza for the same movie.

Shreya Ghoshal won the best female playback award for her song ‘Mayava Chaayavaa’ for the film ‘Iravin Ninzhal’ while the original screenplay honour went to Malayalam film Nayattu’s writer Shahi Kabir.

Sardar Udham Singh directed by Shoojit Sircar won the award for best Hindi film as well as honours for best cinematography (re-recording final mixing), best production design and costume design.