Bollywood Biggies Grab Limelight at India's 66th National Film Awards

The biggest names of India's entertainment industry attended the 66th edition of the presentation ceremony of the National Film Awards on Monday, with the country's Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu distributing the prizes in New Delhi.

South Indian actor Keerthy Suresh, Bollywood stars Ayushmann Khurrana, Akshay Kumar, and Vicky Kaushal were among those felicitated by the awards.

Naidu took to Twitter to explain why Indian movies are so popular around the globe:

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan was bestowed with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award – the highest award for cinema in India – at a separate ceremony as he could not attend the event due to illness.

In September, when conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, he wrote that there was paucity of words to respond to the honour.

India’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javedkar was all praise for Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, whose film “Padman” won the award for Best Film, with a social message on menstrual hygiene.

Bollywood actors Vicky Kaushal and Ayushmann Khurrana shared the Best Actor Award for their films “Uri: The Surgical Strike” and “Andhadhun” (Indiscriminate), respectively.  

Vicky, who played the lead role in the film based on a surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army in September 2016 in response to terror attacks in Uri, an army base camp in Kashmir, said that words might fall short to describe the happiness he was feeling with the win.

Aditya Dhar, director of "Uri: The Surgical Strike", was awarded the Best Director Award.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali won Best Music Award for the film "Padmaavat". The film also fetched the Kruti Mahesh Best Choreography Award for the song "Ghoomar".

Veteran actress Surekha Sikri won the Best Supporting Actress Award for her film "Badhaai Ho" (Congratulations). The actress, who is now wheelchair-bound, was assisted up on stage to receive the award. "Badhaai Ho" also won Best Hindi film.