68th National Film Awards: No Best Critic Award for 2020

NEW DELHI: The winners of the 68th National film awards were announced on Friday but there was no award in the 'Best Critic' category. The Jury for the 68th National Film Awards announced the winners for the year 2020.

"We could not find anyone for the best critic award for 68thNationalFilmAwards," Dharam Gulati, Feature Film Jury (Member - Central Panel) said. The jury comprised of eminent film makers and film personalities from across the Indian cine-world.

The awards were announced by Chitrartha Singh, Chairperson, Non-Feature Jury, Anant Vijay, Chairperson, Best Writing on Cinema Jury besides Gulati in the presence of Neerja Sekhar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Senior film critic Sohini Chattopadhyay received the National award for the Best Critic in 2021.

Among all the films Bollywood period action film 'Tanhaji: The unsung warrior', which starred Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, and Kajol in the lead roles, and south film 'Soorarai Pottru' which starred south actors Suriya, Paresh Rawal and Aparna Balamurali received the most National awards. The Best Actor award in the male category has been shared between Suriya for 'Soorarai Pottru' and Ajay Devgn for the Hindi movie 'Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior'. Manoj Muntashir won the award for Best Lyrics for the Hindi movie 'Saina' and director K. R. Sachidanandan received the Best Director National award for 'Ayyappanum Koshiyum'.

Apart from chairperson Shah, the jury members included cinematographer Dharam Gulati, National award-winning fame Bengali actor Sreelekha Mukherjee, cinematographer GS Bhaskar, A Karthikraaja, VN Aditya, Viji Thampi, Sanjeev Rattan, S Thangadurai and Nishigandha. Producer-director Vipul Shah told ANI, "It has been heartening to see the kind of response that was received and the number of films that we got to see. And these were very difficult COVID times during which these films were either made or being made."

Chitrartha Singh earlier said they have been able to review close to 140 non-feature films including documentaries . "It is amazing to see the kind of content that has come forth, especially from areas like the north-east."