New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has finally decided to organise the 66th National Film Awards ceremony for 2018, after a delay of seven months.
The event, which is usually held on 3 May every year, will take place on 23 December at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
Also, it is the Vice-President and not the President who will be giving the awards, ThePrint has learnt.
The National Film Awards — considered to be the most coveted honour for films in India — are held on 3 May to commemorate the release of the first Indian feature film Raja Harishchandra in 1913.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) had indefinitely postponed the awards ceremony this year to avoid controversies, which could have stemmed out of a divided film industry.
Over 600 artistes, including film and theatre celebrities Amol Palekar, Naseeruddin Shah, Konkona Sen Sharma and Lillette Dubey, had issued an appeal urging Indians not to vote for the BJP in the elections.
There was also a sudden spurt in biopics of politicians in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections, as well as an uncertainty over President Ram Nath Kovind’s presence at the ceremony. While actor Vivek Oberoi played Modi in the Prime Minister’s biopic, Akshay Kumar had interviewed the PM.
In 2014, however, the awards ceremony was held on 3 May despite the approaching general elections.
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Awards usually given by the President
The NFA are usually given by the President. But Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu will be the chief guest at the event while President Ram Nath Kovind may briefly meet the awardees but nothing has been confirmed yet, sources added.
In 2013, former Vice-President Hamid Ansari had honoured the 59th NFA since then President Pratibha Patil was on a foreign visit at the time. Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had also handed over the awards once when he was the Vice-President of India between 1952 and 1962.
Last year, the NFA event was mired in controversy when several awardees boycotted the ceremony after they were informed at the last moment that barring a few awardees, the others would not be receiving their prizes from President Kovind but from the then I&B minister Smriti Irani.
President Kovind had left the ceremony after presenting a few awards, in a departure from the past tradition when Presidents stayed back for the entire event. The remaining awards were then sent to the awardees’ addresses through post by the Directorate of Film Festivals.
Winners declared in August
The winners for the 66th NFA were declared in August this year. Bollywood personalities Vicky Kaushal and Ayushmann Khurrana were named Best Actors while South Indian actor Keerthy Suresh was chosen for the Best Actress award.
Uri, the film based on the 2016 Uri attack, bagged four awards, including for best direction.
Uttarakhand won an award for the most film-friendly state and critically-acclaimed movie Hamid won an award for the best Urdu film.
Around 145 awards across various categories are given out at the NFA and winners are usually announced by the end of April. The ceremony is organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), a media unit under the I&B ministry.
Bengali and Malayalam films have often dominated the awards, while the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, a lifetime achievement prize given out as part of the annual ceremony, has seen Bollywood monopoly.
As reported earlier, the NFA is not exactly free of government influence.
The jury regulations for the awards state that judges would make recommendations for the awards, which would then have to be approved by the I&B ministry that takes a final call.
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