President Droupadi Murmu felicitated the winners of the 72nd National Film Awards at a grand ceremony held on Tuesday (September 22) at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat’s Narmada district. The event marked the first time in decades that the National Film Awards were held away from its usual venue in New Delhi.
The 2026 ceremony was held at the foot of the Statue of Unity (SoU), where the 99 winners were felicitated. As announced in July this year, political action drama Article 370 won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film. Hindi actor Kartik Aaryan (Chandu Champion) and Malayalam superstar Mammootty (Bramayugam) shared the Best Actor honour, while Yami Gautam won Best Actress for Article 370. Rajkumar Periasamy was named Best Director for Amaran.
Veteran actor Anant Nag was conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema in his career spanning five decades.
Actor-turned-filmmaker Randeep Hooda won Best Debut Director for Swatantrya Veer Savarkar. Sci-fi epic Kalki 2898 AD received the award for Best Feature Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Captain Miller was honoured as Best Film Promoting National, Social Values, and Chinna Katha Kaadu won Best Children’s Film. Actor and director Dhanush received a special mention award in the Feature Films category for Captain Miller, as well as the Best Tamil Film award for Raayan.
Additionally, awards were handed for best films in regional languages as well as non-feature categories.
This year’s ceremony marked the first time the National Film Awards were held outside New Delhi in decades. In 1970, the 17th National Film Awards took place at University Centenary Auditorium, Madras (now Chennai).
The Union government has not publicly stated the reasons behind the shift in venue. Among the 72nd edition’s awardees was filmmaker Aanand L Rai, who won the Best Direction award in the non-feature category for Statue of Unity — Ekta Ka Prateek, a documentary about the Gujarati landmark where this year’s ceremony was held. Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the press that the National Film Awards should be taken to various landmark destinations across India.
"Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have undertaken the initiative of taking the National Film Awards to major tourist spots across the country," Vaishnaw was quoted as saying.
For the awards ceremony, a temporary venue was constructed in the bus bay area of the Statue of Unity complex, along with a German aluminium structural dome, seating and other required infrastructure. The ceremony ran for approximately 75 minutes.
The winners of the 72nd National Film Awards were announced in New Delhi on July 18, 2026, recognising excellence in Indian cinema across feature films, non-feature films and writing on cinema. The awards honoured films certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) between January 1 and December 31, 2024.