The National Film Award for Best Actress (officially known as the Rajat Kamal Award for the Best Actress) is an honour presented annually at the

National Film Awards The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

of India since 1968 to an actress for the best performance in a leading role within the

Indian film industry The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ko ...

. The National Film Awards were called the "State Awards for Films" when established in 1954. The State Awards instituted the "Best Actress" category in 1968 as the "Urvashi Award for the Best Actress"; in 1975, the "Urvashi Award" was renamed as the "Rajat Kamal Award for the Best Actress". Throughout the years, accounting for ties and repeat winners, the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

has presented a total of 56 Best Actress awards to 45 different actresses. Until 1974, winners of the National Film Award received a

figurine A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cl ...

and certificate; since 1975, they have been awarded with a "Rajat Kamal" (silver lotus), certificate and a cash prize that amounted to in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

. Although the Indian film industry produces films in more than 20 languages and dialects, the actresses whose performances have won awards have worked in ten major languages:

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

(22 awards),

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

(7 awards),

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

(6 awards),

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

(6 awards),

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

(4 awards),

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

(3 awards),

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

(3 awards),

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

(2 awards), Assamese (one award) and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Nargis Dutt from

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

, who was honoured at the 15th National Film Awards (1967) for her performance in '' Raat Aur Din''. The actress who won the most Rajat Kamal awards is

Shabana Azmi Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of Hindi film, television and theatre. One of India's most acclaimed actresses, Azmi is known for her portrayals of distinctive, often unconventional female characters across several ge ...

with five wins, followed by Sharada and

Kangana Ranaut Kangna Amardeep Ranaut (; born 23 March 1987) is an Indian actress and filmmaker who works in Hindi films. Known for her work in female-led films, she is the recipient of several awards, including four National Film Awards and five Filmfar ...

with three wins. As of 2021, four actresses— Smita Patil, Archana,

Shobana Shobana Chandrakumar Pillai (born 21 March 1970) is an Indian actress and Bharatanatyam dancer. She acts predominantly in Malayalam films along with Telugu and Tamil films with few Hindi, Kannada and English films. She has won two National Fil ...

, and

Tabu Tabu may refer to: Cultural and legal concepts *Taboo (spelled ''tabu'' in earlier historical records), something that is unacceptable in society *Tapu (Polynesian culture) (also spelled ''tabu''), a Polynesian cultural concept from which the wor ...

who have won the award two times. Sharada, Archana and

are the only three actresses to get the award for performing in two different languages. Sharada was bestowed with the awards for her performances in two Malayalam films: ''

Thulabharam ''Thulabharam'' () is a 1968 Indian Malayalam-language film, directed by A. Vincent. It is based on the Kerala People's Arts Club play of the same name, written by Thoppil Bhasi. Thoppil Bhasi also adapted the play for the screen. The film had ...

'' and '' Swayamvaram'' in 1968 and 1972 respectively, and in 1978 for the Telugu film '' Nimajjanam''. Archana was first honoured in 1987 for the Tamil film ''

Veedu ''Veedu'' () is a 1988 Indian Tamil-language film directed by Balu Mahendra. Starring Archana as the central character, it depicts the difficulties faced by a middle-class family in building a house. Apart from directing, Balu Mahendra wrote th ...

'' and was awarded for the second time in 1988 for the Telugu film '' Daasi''. Shobana received her first award for the Malayalam film ''

Manichitrathazhu ''Manichitrathazhu'' () is a 1993 Indian Malayalam-language epic psychological horror film directed by Fazil, written by Madhu Muttam, and produced by Swargachitra Appachan. The film stars Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi and Shobana with Nedumudi Venu ...

'' in 1993, and her second for the English film ''

Mitr, My Friend ''Mitr, My Friend'' is a 2002 Indian English-language drama film directed by Revathi in her directorial debut, and written by V. Priya and Sudha Kongara Prasad. Set partly in India and the US, the film was also noted for having an all-woman crew ...

'' in 2001. As of 2020, the late

Monisha Unni Monisha Unni (24 January 1970 – 5 December 1992) was an Indian actress, known for her works in Malayalam, Tamil cinema. Monisha was 16 when she became the youngest actress ever to receive the National Film Award for Best Actress for ''N ...

remains the youngest recipient of the honour; she was awarded for the Malayalam film ''

Nakhakshathangal ''Nakhakshathangal'' () is a 1986 Indian Malayalam-language film directed by Hariharan, written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair and starring Monisha, Vineeth and Saleema. Monisha, won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her role, making her ...

'' in 1986 when she was 16.

Indrani Haldar Indrani Haldar is an Indian actress who is mostly known for her work in Bengali cinema. She was conferred with a National Award, three BFJA Awards and two Anandalok Awards. Halder made her debut in 1986 with the Bengali TV series ''Tero Parbo ...

and

Rituparna Sengupta Rituparna Sengupta is an Indian actress and producer who is known for her work in Bengali cinema and Hindi cinema. One of the most successful actresses of Bengali cinema, she rode the crest of her box office success in the late 1990s. She won ...

are the only two actresses to be honoured for the same film—'' Dahan''.

is the only actress to be honoured for her performance in two different films ('' Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi'' and '' Panga'') in the same year.

Sridevi Shree Amma Yanger Ayyappan (13 August 1963 – 24 February 2018), professionally credited with her stage name Sridevi, was an Indian actress who worked in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada language films. Cited as the "First Female ...

is the only actress who was honoured posthumously for her performance in '' Mom'' (2017). The most recent recipient is

Aparna Balamurali Aparna Balamurali (born 11 September 1995) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Malayalam films along with a few Tamil films. She is known for her roles in ''Maheshinte Prathikaaram'' (2016), '' Sunday Holiday'' (2017) and '' Soorarai P ...

, who will be honoured at the

68th National Film Awards The 68th National Film Awards ceremony was an event during which the Directorate of Film Festivals presented its annual National Film Awards to honour the best films of 2020 in Indian cinema. The awards ceremony was originally slated to be held ...

for her performance in the 2020

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

film, ''

Soorarai Pottru ''Soorarai Pottru'' () is a 2020 Indian Tamil-language drama film that was written and directed by Sudha Kongara, and produced by Suriya, Jyothika and Guneet Monga. Kongara and Shalini Usha Nair wrote the screenplay; Aalif Surti and Ganeshaa p ...

''.

Key

Multiple winners

* 5 Wins:

* 3 wins: Sharada,

* 2 Wins: Smita Patil, Archana,

and

Recipients

Notes

References

External links

Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India

National Film Awards Archives
{{featured list Film awards for lead actress

Actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...