The National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress is an honour presented annually at India's

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 ...

ceremony by the

Directorate of Film Festivals The Directorate of Film Festivals in India was an organisation that initiated and presented the International Film Festival of India, the National Film Awards and the Indian Panorama. Although the Directorate helped appoint members of the jur ...

(DFF), an organisation set up by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Since 1984, the award is given by a national panel appointed annually by the DFF to an actress for the best performance in a supporting role within

Indian cinema 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 ...

. It is presented by the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

at a ceremony held in New Delhi. The winner is given a "Rajat Kamal" (Silver Lotus) certificate and a cash prize of 50,000 (

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

780). Including ties and repeat winners, the DFF has presented a total of 39 Best Supporting Actress awards to 35 different actresses. Although Indian cinema produces films in more than 20 languages, the performances of films that have won awards are of ten 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 ...

(18 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 ...

(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 ...

(4 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 ...

(4 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 ...

(2 awards), Meitei (1 award),

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 * * ...

(1 award),

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Haryanvi Haryanvi ( ' or '), also known as Bangru, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the state of Haryana in India, and to a lesser extent in Delhi. Haryanvi is considered to be part of the dialect group of Western Hindi, which also includes Kharibo ...

(1 award),

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

(1 award) . The first recipient was

Rohini Hattangadi Rohini Hattangadi (''née'' Oak; born 11 April 1955) is an Indian actress, known for her work in Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, and Gujarati films, and Marathi soap operas and theatre. She has won two Filmfare Awards, one National Film ...

, who was honoured at the

32nd National Film Awards The 32nd National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1984. Ceremony took place in J ...

for her performance in the Hindi film ''

Party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...

'' (1984). , Surekha Sikri have been honoured thrice for her Hindi films - '' Tamas'' (1987), ''

Mammo ''Mammo'' is a 1994 Indian Hindi film by Shyam Benegal. It stars Farida Jalal, Surekha Sikri, Amit Phalke and Rajit Kapur. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi in 1995. Farida Jalal won Filmfare Critics Award f ...

'' (1994) and ''

Badhaai Ho ''Badhaai Ho'' (; ) is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language comedy drama film directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma and produced by Sharma, Aleya Sen and Hemant Bhandari under Chrome Pictures and Vineet Jain under Junglee Pictures. It stars Ayushmann ...

'' (2018). K. P. A. C. Lalitha won the award two times for her work in the Malayalam films ''

Amaram ''Amaram'' () is a 1991 Indian Malayalam drama film directed by Bharathan and written by A. K. Lohithadas. It stars Mammootty, Maathu, K. P. A. C. Lalitha, Ashokan, Murali, Chitra, and Kuthiravattam Pappu in the main roles. The film's score ...

'' (1990) and ''

Shantham ''Shantham'' ( en, Calmness, italic=yes) is a Malayalam feature film directed by Jayaraj. It stars I M Vijayan, a leading Indian football player of modern times, M G Shashi, Seema Biswas and K P A C Lalitha. The renowned Kathakali artiste Ka ...

'' (2000). Egyptian actress Aida El-Kashef, who was honoured at the

61st National Film Awards The 61st National Film Awards ceremony was an event during which the Directorate of Film Festivals of India presented its annual National Film Awards to honour the best films of 2013 in the Indian cinema. The ceremony was held on 3 May 2014. ...

for her performance in the English-Hindi film ''

Ship of Theseus The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment about whether an object that has had all of its original components replaced remains the same object. According to legend, Theseus, the mythical Greek founder-king of Athens, had rescued the children of ...

'' (2013) is the only non-Indian actress to win the award. Urvashi and Kalpana are the only siblings to receive the honour. Ties between two actresses have occurred in the years 1999, 2012 and 2013.

Sharmila Tagore Sharmila Tagore (also known as Begum Ayesha Sultana; born 8 December 1944) is a retired Indian actress, primarily known for her work in Hindi and Bengali cinema, Tagore is the recipient of two National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award, and the Fi ...

Konkona Sen Sharma Konkona Sen Sharma (born 3 December 1979) is an Indian actress and filmmaker who works primarily in Hindi and Bengali films. She has received two National Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards. The daughter of filmmakeractress Aparna Sen, Sen ...

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 ...

are the three actresses to receive honours in both acting categories:

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

and Best Supporting Actress. The most recent recipient is

Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli is a National award winning Indian actress who predominantly works in Tamil and Malayalam films. A post graduate in human resource management from Madras School of Social Work, she joined the English theatre company ...

, who was 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 Tamil film ''

Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum ''Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum'' () is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language anthology film directed by Vasanth, Vasanth S Sai. The film notably has no score, instead featuring sounds designed by Anand Krishnamoorthi. The production of the film st ...

'' (2020).

Multiple recipients

*3 wins: Surekha Sikri *2 wins: K. P. A. C. Lalitha

Recipients

Key

Footnotes

References

External links

Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India

National Film Awards Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Film Award For Best Supporting Actress Supporting Actress Film awards for supporting actress