65th National Film Awards: Sridevi wins Best Actress for Mom, Newton best film

Sridevi

Sridevi conferred with the Best Actress Award for her performance in Mom

The announcement of the prestigious 65th National Awards have already begun and the award ceremony for the same will be held on May 3. The award will be presented by President Ram Nath Kovind. The jury is headed by noted filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. Apart from Shekhar Kapur, the jury panel consists of 10 members including Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit's film, Parinda's screenwriter Imtiaz Hussain, lyricist Mehboob, South Indian actress Gautami Tadimalla and Kannada director P Sheshadri. Bengali film director, who earned fame through his Hindi film, Pink, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury is also one of the members of the panel, other than Ranjit Das, Rajesh Mapuskar, Tripurari Sharma and Rumi Jaffrey.

Actress Sridevi has posthumously bagged the Best Actress Award for her spectacular performance in the film, Mom. Rajkummar Rao's Newton, helmed by Amit Masurkar has been awarded as the Best Hindi Film of the Year.

The veteran actress, Sridevi, died an unfortunate death in Dubai on February 12.

Rajkummar Rao in a still from the film Newton

The 65th National Awards has announced that the Gangs of Wasseypur and Masaan actor has won a Special Mention Award for his role in Newton. Ecstatic by this, the Newton actor says, "I am absolutely delighted. I had no idea I was even in the running. It feels amazing to know that the whole country thought my role in Newton was one of my best and to win the Special Mention Award at the highest film award in India is just exhilarating. My director and co-actors made it so easy for me to act in this film."

Elated with the news about Ghazi winning the Best Telugu film. Taapsee Pannu said, "This is the third time I have had the opportunity to be a part of a National Award Winning film. Even though I had a special appearance in the film, it was personally a very satisfying part for me as an actor. I'm ecstatic with the news about the film winning the National Award Honour."

Actress Divya Dutta bagged the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the film, Iraada. Overwhelmed by it, she says, "I am overjoyed with the news. First my film Manto going to Cannes and now the National award, I am overwhelmed. The actor in me feels alive again and grateful that there is appreciation pouring in. After a 100 odd films , this is my first national award and I am going to treasure this moment. It means the world."

Other notable mentions:

Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment: Baahubali 2