The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) has dropped the names of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and late actor Nargis Dutt from the National Film Awards. It has also announced a host of other changes based on the recommendations of a committee set up by the ministry with an aim “to rationalise the honours”.
Key changes
- The ‘Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a director’ will now be simply called ‘Best Debut Film of a Director’.
- The ‘Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration’ has become the ‘Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values’.
- The prize money for Dadasaheb Phalke Award, presented for one’s lifetime contribution to the field of cinema, has been increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.
- For Swarn Kamal and Rajat Kamal awards, the prize money has been upped to Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively, as opposed to earlier cash prizes ranging between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh.
- The award for ‘Best Feature Film’ in each of the languages specified in the Schedule VIII of the Constitution has been renamed as ‘Best (name of the language) Feature Film’.
