Dainik Nation News Portal
Doffing its hat to mainstream stars Vinod Khanna and Sridevi, the 65th National Film Awards today recognised their contribution to the Indian cinema by honouring them posthumously with the Dadasaheb Phalke and best actress awards.
Announcing Sridevi’s name, feature film jury head Shekhar Kapur said the actor was the most deserving candidate.
Sridevi, whose filmography spanned across 50 years and in 300 films in languages such as Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, was recognised for her role of an angry mother seeking justice for her daughter in rape revenge drama, “Mom”.
Her death, at the age of 54 in February this year, had shocked the country. Kapur had worked with Sridevi in “Mr India”. “It was not because of the relationship we shared but because she was the most deserving candidate for her portrayal in ‘Mom’,” Kapur said.
Sridevi’s husband Boney Kapoor became emotional when told about her win.
“Thank you. I just wish she was here today to see this,” Boney told PTI.
Khanna, one of the biggest stars of Hindi films in ’70s and ’80s, became the 49th recipient of Dadasaheb Phalke award, Indian cinema’s highest honour. Probably, the only second actor to be named for the honour posthumously after Prithviraj Kapoor.
The jury recognised the diversity in Indian cinema by distributing accolades to films belonging to different regional languages. Rima Das’ Assamese film “Village Rockstars”, about the music aspirations of a village girl, was named the best feature film, besides scoring awards for the best location sound recordist, editing and best child artiste (Bhanita Das).
Jayaraj was named the best director and the best adapted screenplay writer for his Malayalam film “Bhayanakam”. It also won the best cinematography award.
