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Journalism of Courage
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) has dropped the names of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and late actor Nargis Dutt from the National Film Awards. It has also announced a host of other changes based on the recommendations of a committee set up by the ministry with an aim “to rationalise the honours”. We take a look.
The changes
The ‘Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a director’ will now be simply called ‘Best Debut Film of a Director’. Indira’s name became associated with the award during the 28th National Film Awards in 1980.
Moreover, the ‘Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration’ has become the ‘Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values’. Nargis’s name came to be associated with the National Film Awards in 1965, during the 13th edition of the awards, for best feature film category.
Last year, at the 69th edition of the National Film Awards (for 2021), Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files bagged the Nargis Dutt Awards, whereas the Indira Gandhi Award went to Vishnu Mohan for his Malayalam film Meppadiyan.
Prize money for awards has also been revised. For instance, the prize money for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, presented for one’s lifetime contribution to the field of cinema, has been increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh. For Swarn Kamal and Rajat Kamal awards, the prize money has been upped to Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively, as opposed to earlier cash prizes ranging between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh.
Awards for ‘Best Animation Film’ and ‘Best Special Effects’ have been clubbed under a new category — ‘Best AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming and comics) Film’, with two further sub-categories.
Moreover, in the non-feature film category, some segments have been discontinued while others have been merged. A new category for best script has also been introduced.
The award for ‘Best Feature Film’ in each of the languages specified in Schedule VIII of the Constitution has been renamed as ‘Best (name of the language) Feature Film’. Similar changes have been made to the ‘Feature Film’ in each of the languages other than those specified in Schedule VIII of the Constitutional category. The committee recommended giving only one award per category, with shared awards given only under exceptional circumstances to maintain the prestige of the awards.
The awards for films released in 2022 will be announced later this year.
The committee behind the changes
The new regulations have come into effect based on the recommendations of a committee set up by the I&B ministry with an aim “to rationalise the honours”.
The committee was headed by Neerja Sekhar, Additional Secretary in the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry, and also included filmmakers Priyadarshan and Vipul Amrutlal Shah, Central Board of Film Certification chief Prasoon Joshi, as well as I&B joint secretary (films) Prithul Kumar.
Sources say the committee deliberated on the changes during the pandemic, and the decision to make these changes was unanimous.
Seven decades of the National Film Awards
The awards were first presented in 1954 by the Government of India with an aim “to honour films made across India, on a national scale, to encourage the furthering of Indian art and culture”.
Since 1973, the Directorate of Film Festivals has administered the ceremony annually. The juries are appointed by the Directorate of Film Festivals.
A list of rules is presented every year in a document of regulations known as the National Film Award Regulations. The criteria for eligibility contain several clauses, and the awards are categorised into three sections; Feature Films, Non-Feature Films, and Best Writing on Cinema.
All the winners are awarded a medal, a cash prize, and a certificate of merit.
