National Film Awards: Wins for Rishabh Shetty, Kantara, Brahmastra, Gulmohar, KGF - 2

Actor-director Rishabh Shetty, who portrayed a double role in Kannada action thriller ‘Kantara’, has been adjudged as Best Actor in a leading role at the 70th National Film Awards for the year 2022. Rishabh not only acted in this critically acclaimed film, but also co-wrote and produced it. ‘Kantara’ was released in 2022 and created history by earning more than Rs 450 crore at the box office. The film, which was released in different languages, also won the Best Film award in the Wholesome Entertainment category.

Rishabh is already working on the prequel of the film ‘Kantara: Chapter 1’, which is slated to release later this year. 

70th National Awards winners:

Best feature film award has been given to ‘Aattam’ (The Play) directed by Anand Ekarshi; and the award for Best Non-Feature Film has been bagged by ‘Ayena’ (Mirror) directed by Siddhant Sarin.

Award for Best Book on Cinema has been given to ‘Kishore Kumar: The Ultimate Biography’ authored by Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar.

‘Kantara’ won the Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.

Rishab Shetty has been awarded the Best Actor in Leading Role for his performance in the movie ‘Kantara’, whereas Nithya Menen bagged the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for ‘Thiruchitrambalam’.

Pavan Raj Malhotra won the award for Best Supporting Actor, while Neena Gupta won the Best Supporting Actress Award in the Feature Films category.

Directed by Ayan Mukerji with its VFX Supervisors Jaykar Arudra, Viral Thakkar, and Neelesh Gore, ‘Brahmastra – Part 1: Shiva’ bagged the award for Best Film in AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects Gaming & Comic).

Sooraj R Barjatya won the award for Best Direction for the Hindi film ‘Uunchai’ (Zenith).

The jury included Rahul Rawail, Chairperson of the Feature Film Jury; Nila Madhab Panda, Chairperson of the Non-Feature Jury; Gangadhar Mudalair, Chairperson of the Best Writing on Cinema Jury. The awards were declared for the year 2022 for feature and non-feature films as it was delayed by two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.