The 20th National Film Awards, presented by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1972.
With this year, new award category is introduced for the feature films made in Meitei language. This newly introduced category includes President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Manipuri.
Juries
Six different committees were formed based on the film making sectors in India, mainly based in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras along with the central committee for all India level. For 20th National Film Awards, central committee was headed by Romesh Thapar.
Jury Members: Central Romesh Thapar (Chairperson)Thakazhi Sivasankara PillaiRita RaySheila VatsUsha BhagatGirish Karnad M. Yunus DehlviTeji BachchanPhanishwar Nath 'Renu'Shanta GandhiU. Visweswar RaoI. S. Johar Ardhendu Mukerjee Jury Members: Short Films S. K. Kooka (Chairperson)B. D. GargaPrasanta SanyalGerson Da CunhaAruna VasudevaBishamber KhannaRevati Saran SharmaDin Dayal Jury Regional: Bombay Ali Sardar Jafri (Chairperson)Mrinalini SarabhaiCharles CorreaBikram SinghBhupendra Shah Gopinath TalwalkarD. G. NadkarniKumud MehtaAdi MarzbanP. K. RavindranathB. K. AdarshAtma RamG. P. ShirkeKamleshwar Jury Regional: Calcutta Sombhu Mitra (Chairperson)Amina KarSuchitra MitraSanat LahiriN. K. GhoshBhaben BaruaRamesh Chandra DhallAnanda ShankarBadal SarkarB. N. Sircar Jury Regional: Calcutta - Nominated Parimal SarkarKanan DeviSubodh MitraElangbam Nilakanta SinghMaharaj Kumari Binodini Devi Jury Regional: Madras Malcolm Adiseshiah (Chairperson)B. N. ReddyA. L. VelliappaMahmooda Haja ShareefS. AnanthamurthyThoppil RaviV. C. SubburamanP. S. Ramakrishna RaoK. P. KottarakkaraRajammal AnantharamanP. C. Mathew
Awards
Awards were divided into feature films and non-feature films.
President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film is now better known as National Film Award for Best Feature Film, whereas President's Gold Medal for the Best Documentary Film is analogous to today's National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film. For children's films, Prime Minister's Gold Medal is now given as National Film Award for Best Children's Film. At the regional level, President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film is now given as National Film Award for Best Feature Film in a particular language. Certificate of Merit in all the categories is discontinued over the years.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Name of AwardImageAwardee(s)Awarded AsAwardsDadasaheb Phalke AwardPankaj MullickMusic Director11,000, a shawl and a plaque
Feature films
Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 20th National Film Awards, a Malayalam film Swayamvaram won the President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film along with winning the maximum number of awards (four). Following were the awards given in each category:
All India Award
Following were the awards given:
AwardFilmLanguageAwardee(s)Cash prizeBest Feature FilmSwayamvaramMalayalamProducer: Kulathoor Bhaskaran NairGold Medal and 40,000Director: Adoor Gopalakrishnan10,000 and a plaqueSecond Best Feature FilmCalcutta 71BengaliProducer: D. S. Sultania15,000 and a medalDirector: Mrinal Sen5,000 and a plaqueBest Feature Film on National IntegrationAchanum BappayumMalayalamProducer: C. C. Baby30,000 and a medalDirector: K. S. Sethumadhavan10,000 and a plaqueBest DirectionSwayamvaramMalayalamAdoor Gopalakrishnan 5,000 and a plaqueBest Cinematography (Black and White)SwayamvaramMalayalamMankada Ravi Varma5,000 and a plaqueBest Cinematography (Color)Maya DarpanHindiK. K. Mahajan5,000 and a plaqueBest ScreenplayKoshishHindiGulzar 5,000 and a plaqueBest Actor (Bharat Award)KoshishHindiSanjeev KumarA figurineBest Actress (Urvashi Award)SwayamvaramMalayalamSharadaA figurineBest Child ArtistRanur Pratham BhagBengaliNeera MallyaA plaqueBest Female Playback SingerParichayHindiLata MangeshkarA plaqueBest Male Playback SingerAchanum BappayumMalayalamK. J. YesudasA plaqueBest Music DirectionZindagi ZindagiHindiSachin Dev Burman 5,000 and a plaqueLyric Writer of the Best Film Song on National IntegrationAchanum BappayumMalayalamVayalar Ramavarma 5,000 and a plaque
Regional Award
The awards were given to the best films made in the regional languages of India. For feature films in English, Kashmiri, Oriya and Punjabi language, President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film was not given. The producer and director of the film were awarded with 5,000 and a Silver medal, respectively.
AwardFilmAwardee(s) Producer DirectorBest Feature Film in AssameseUpaja Sonar MaatiM/s Pragati Cine ProductionsBrajen BaruaBest Feature Film in BengaliStrir PatraDhrupadiPurnendu PatriBest Feature Film in GujaratiGun Sundarino Ghar SansarRamesh H. SaraiyaGovind SaraiyaJayant MalaviyaChandulal GandhiBest Feature Film in HindiMaya DarpanKumar ShahaniKumar ShahaniBest Feature Film in KannadaSharapanjaraC. S. RajahPuttanna KanagalBest Feature Film in MalayalamPanitheeratha VeeduK. S. R. MoorthyK. S. SethumadhavanBest Feature Film in ManipuriMatamgi ManipurKaram Monomohan SinghDebkumar BoseBest Feature Film in MarathiPinjraV. ShantaramV. ShantaramBest Feature Film in TamilPattikada PattanamaP. MadhavanP. MadhavanBest Feature Film in TeluguPandanti KapuramG. Hanumantha RaoLakshmi Deepak
Non-Feature films
Following were the awards given:
Short films
Name of AwardName of FilmLanguageAwardee(s)AwardsBest Information Film (Documentary)The Inner EyeEnglishProducer: Satyajit Ray5,000 and a medalDirector: Satyajit RayBest Film on Social DocumentationTranscedenceEnglishProducer: Pramod Patil 5,000Director: K. Vishwanath 2,000Best Promotional Film (Commercial)Destination IndiaEnglishProducer: Cinerad CommunicationsSilver MedalDirector: Zafar HaiA plaqueBest Animation FilmYou Said ItEnglishProducer: Prasad Productions5,000Director: Ram Mohan2,000
Awards not given
Following were the awards not given as no film was found to be suitable for the award:
Best Story Writer Best Film on Family Welfare Best Children's Film Best Educational / Instructional Film Best Experimental Film Best Promotional Film (Non-Commercial) President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in English President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Oriya President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Punjabi
References
External links National Film Awards Archives Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India