53rd National Film Awards

Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 53rd National Film Awards, a Bengali film, Kaalpurush won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film; whereas a Hindi film, Rang De Basanti, won the maximum number of awards (4). Following were the awards given in each category:[1]

A committee headed by B. Saroja Devi was appointed to evaluate the feature films awards. Following were the jury members:[1][9]

• Jury Members
  • B. Saroja Devi (Chairperson) • P. H. Vishwanath • Katte Ramachandra • B. S. Loknath • Seema Biswas • P. Sudershan
  • Shyamaprasad • Shyamali Deb Banerjee • Meena Debbarma • Anwar Ali • Ina Puri • Ashok Saran

Following were the awards given:[1]

Official Name: Swarna Kamal[1]

All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

Official Name: Rajat Kamal[1]

All the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

The award is given to best film in the regional languages in India.[1]

Best Feature Film in Each of the Language Other Than Those Specified In the Schedule VIII of the Constitution

Films made in any Indian language shot on 16 mm, 35 mm or in a wider gauge or digital format and released on either film format or video/digital but certified by the Central Board of Film Certification as a documentary/newsreel/fiction are eligible for non-feature film section.

A committee headed by Siddharth Kak was appointed to evaluate the non-feature films awards. Following were the jury members:[1][9]

• Jury Members
  • Siddharth Kak (Chairperson) • Chinmoya Nath • Sangeeta Tamuli • Kishore Dang • Kireet Khurana • A. B. Tripathi

Official Name: Swarna Kamal[1]

All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

Official Name: Rajat Kamal[1]

All the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)' and cash prize.

The awards aim at encouraging study and appreciation of cinema as an art form and dissemination of information and critical appreciation of this art-form through publication of books, articles, reviews etc.

A committee headed by Khalid Mohamed was appointed to evaluate the writing on Indian cinema. Following were the jury members:[1][9]

• Jury Members
  • Khalid Mohamed (Chairperson) • Ratnottama Sengupta • Amitabh Parashar

Official Name: Swarna Kamal[1]

All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)' and cash prize.

Following were the awards not given as no film was found to be suitable for the award:[1]

As per the rule, award committee judges the films which have obtained the censorship certificate from Central Board of Film Certification in order to be eligible for entry. Noted film-makers Anand Patwardhan, Gaurav Jani and Simantini Dhuru had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court asking for exemptions for their films from obtaining censor board certification. Based on this petition, the court had given judgments to consider the uncensored films as well for the awards. In spite of this judgment, juries went ahead with the existing rule and left out uncensored non-feature films.

On this judgment, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting decided to appeal in the Supreme Court of India against this verdict.

Justice B.D. Ahmed of Supreme Court then given a verdict putting aside the earlier verdict given by Bombay High Court and made compulsory for the films to have the censor board certificate. [4][6][11][12][13][14][15][16]

Kolkata based film critic and one the juries for 53rd National Film Awards, Shyamali Deb Banerjee, had filed a petition in the Delhi High Court against the favouritism in the selection of films for the awards in the five categories and levelling charges of corruption and fixing in deciding the 53rd Awards. She alleged that there is pressure on the members of the jury by the Directorate of the Film Festivals to decide in favour of particular films. According to her, awards have been 'High Jacked' and nexus between producers, distributors and directors.

To support her claim, she sent two letters to Directorate of the Film Festivals on 13 August and 4 September 2006, in which she questioned the selection process of the awards and also alleged that preliminary round drop-out films were then selected for the awards.

She had challenged the decision to give the awards to Black for Best Film in Hindi and Best Actor, Parineeta for Best Debut Director, saying it is not an original work and is inspired with the movies released earlier on the same theme. Parzania winning the Best Director for Rahul Dholakia and Sarika for Best Actress was accused to mock the Indian democratic system. However, Hindi Film Apaharan and Tamil film Anniyan which won Best Screenplay and Best Special Effects respectively were accused of not even qualifying the preliminary rounds and then winning the awards.

However, the petition was dismissed by the court saying the petitioner had no case when the other members of the Jury had no objection to the selection of the films for the awards.[3][4][6][11][17]

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black also faced the heat of controversy when Shyamali Deb Banerjee, a juror for the 53rd National Film Awards, claimed that the film was ineligable for awards as it was an adaptation of the film The Miracle Worker and according to the rules adaptations were ineligable for awards. She had also filed a petition in the court. Though the film finally won three national awards, for Best Actor, Best Costume Design and Best Feature Film in Hindi.[3][4][6][11][17]

Shyamali Deb Banerjee had also alleged Rahul Dholakia's Parzania in her filed petition. It said that "film mocks the Indian democratic system and ends with just forming a human rights commission for a probe into the riots. This film has been banned in Gujarat and if the award for best director goes to this film, it might fan further controversy." Film won Rahul Dholakia, his first National Film Award for Best Direction and Sarika won Best Actress Award.[3][4][6][12]