The 20th

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 ...

, presented by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of

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, ...

released in the year 1972. With this year, new award category is introduced for the feature films made in

Meitei language Meitei (), also known as Manipuri (, ), is a Tibeto-Burman language of north-eastern India. It is spoken by around 1.8 million people, predominantly in the state of Manipur, but also by smaller communities in the rest of the country and in pa ...

. This newly introduced category includes President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Manipuri.

Juries

Six different committees were formed based on the film making sectors in India, mainly based in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras along with the central committee for all India level. For 20th National Film Awards, central committee was headed by

Romesh Thapar Romesh Thapar (1922–1987) was an Indian journalist and political commentator. Affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Thapar was the founder-editor of the monthly journal ''Seminar,'' published from New Delhi, India. Early life ...

. * Jury Members: Central **

(

Chairperson The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

) Thakazhi Sivasankara PillaiRita RaySheila VatsUsha Bhagat

Girish Karnad Girish Karnad (19 May 1938 – 10 June 2019) was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in South Indian cinema and Bollywood. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the ...

M. Yunus Dehlvi Teji Bachchan

Phanishwar Nath 'Renu' Phanishwar Nath Mandal 'Renu' (4 March 1921 – 11 April 1977) was one of the most successful and influential writers of modern Hindi literature in the post-Premchand era. He is the author of ''Maila Anchal'', which after Premchand's '' Godaan' ...

Shanta Gandhi Shanta Kalidas Gandhi (20 December 1917 – 6 May 2002) was an Indian theatre director, dancer and playwright who was closely associated with IPTA, the cultural wing of the Communist Party of India. She studied with Indira Gandhi at a residenti ...

U. Visweswar Rao

I. S. Johar Inder Sen Johar(16 February 1920 – 10 March 1984), better known as I. S. Johar, was an Indian actor, writer, producer and director, who excelled in comedic roles. Early life Inderjeet Singh Johar was born on 16th February, 1920 in Talagang ...

Ardhendu Mukerjee * Jury Members: Short Films ** S. K. Kooka (

) B. D. GargaPrasanta Sanyal

Gerson Da Cunha Gerson da Cunha (16 June 1929 – 7 January 2022) was an Indian advertising professional who was also a stage and film actor, social worker, and author. He headed the Indian market communications agency Lintas and also worked for J. Walter Tho ...

Aruna Vasudeva

Bishamber Khanna Bishamber Khanna is an Indian painter and enamelist. Born in 1930, Khanna is credited with several exhibitions and his creations have been displayed at centres such as the Delhi Art Gallery. He served as a member of the jury for the 20th National ...

Revati Saran SharmaDin Dayal * Jury Regional: Bombay ** Ali Sardar Jafri (

)

Mrinalini Sarabhai Mrinalini Vikram Sarabhai (11 May 1918 – 21 January 2016) was an Indian classical dancer, choreographer and instructor. She was the founder and director of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, an institute for imparting training in dance, ...

Charles Correa Charles Mark Correa (1 September 1930 – 16 June 2015) was an Indian architect and urban planner. Credited with the creation of modern architecture in post-Independent India, he was celebrated for his sensitivity to the needs of the urban p ...

Bikram SinghBhupendra Shah Gopinath TalwalkarD. G. NadkarniKumud Mehta Adi MarzbanP. K. RavindranathB. K. Adarsh Atma RamG. P. Shirke Kamleshwar * Jury Regional: Calcutta **

Sombhu Mitra Sombhu Mitra (22 August 1915 – 19 May 1997) was an Indian film and stage actor, director, playwright, reciter and an Indian theatre personality, known especially for his involvement in Bengali theatre, where he is considered a pioneer. ...

(

)Amina Kar

Suchitra Mitra Suchitra Mitra (19 September 1924 – 3 January 2011) was an Indian singer, composer, artist exponent of Rabindra Sangeet or the songs of Bengal's poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore, professor, and the first woman Sheriff of Kolkata. As an acad ...

Sanat LahiriN. K. GhoshBhaben BaruaRamesh Chandra Dhall

Ananda Shankar Ananda Shankar (11 December 1942 – 26 March 1999) was an Indian musician, singer, and composer best known for fusing Western and Eastern musical styles. He was married to dancer and choreographer Tanusree Shankar. Life Born in Almora in ...

Badal Sarkar Sudhindra Sircar (Born 15 July 1925), also known as Badal Sarkar, was an influential Indian dramatist and theatre director, most known for his anti-establishment plays during the Naxalite movement in the 1970s and taking theatre out of the pros ...

B. N. Sircar * ''Jury Regional: Calcutta - Nominated'' ** Parimal Sarkar

Kanan Devi Kanan Devi (22 April 1916 – 17 July 1992) was an Indian actress and singer. She was among the early singing stars of Indian cinema, and is credited popularly as the first star of Bengali cinema. Her singing style, usually in rapid tempo, was ...

Subodh Mitra

Elangbam Nilakanta Singh Elangbam Nilakanta Singh (1927-2000) was an Indian poet and critic, considered by many as one of the pioneers of modern Meitei literature. A recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1987, Nilakanta Singh was honored by the Government of India, ...

Maharaj Kumari Binodini Devi * Jury Regional: Madras **

Malcolm Adiseshiah Malcolm Sathiyanathan Adiseshiah (18 April 1910 – 21 November 1994), was an Indian development economist and educator. In 1976 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award. In 1998, UNESCO created the Malcolm A ...

(

) B. N. ReddyA. L. VelliappaMahmooda Haja ShareefS. AnanthamurthyThoppil RaviV. C. Subburaman

P. S. Ramakrishna Rao P. S. Ramakrishna Rao (12 October 1918 – 7 September 1986) was a veteran Telugu film director and producer. He married Bhanumathi, a multi-talented film artist from South India, on 8 August 1943. Filmography *'' Gruhalakshmi'' (1967) (Prod ...

K. P. KottarakkaraRajammal AnantharamanP. C. Mathew

Awards

Awards were divided into feature films and non-feature films. President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film is now better known as

National Film Award for Best Feature Film The National Award for Best Feature Film is one of the categories in the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India. It is one of se ...

, whereas President's Gold Medal for the Best Documentary Film is analogous to today's

National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film The National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awar ...

. For children's films, Prime Minister's Gold Medal is now given as

National Film Award for Best Children's Film The National Film Award for Best Children's Film is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awards ...

. At the regional level, President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film is now given as National Film Award for Best Feature Film in a particular language. Certificate of Merit in all the categories is discontinued over the years.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Feature films

Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 20th National Film Awards, a

Malayalam film Malayalam cinema is an Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kochi, Kerala, India. The films produced in Malayalam cinema are known for their cinematography and story-driven plots. In 1982, '' Elippathaya ...

'' Swayamvaram'' won the President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film along with winning the maximum number of awards (four). Following were the awards given in each category:

All India Award

Following were the awards given:

Regional Award

The awards were given to the best films made in the regional languages of India. For feature films in

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 ...

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

, Oriya and

Punjabi language Punjabi (; ; , ), sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers. Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 80.5 ...

, President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film was not given. The producer and director of the film were awarded with 5,000 and a Silver medal, respectively.

Non-Feature films

Following were the awards given:

Short films

Awards not given

Following were the awards not given as no film was found to be suitable for the award: * Best Story Writer * Best Film on Family Welfare * Best Children's Film * Best Educational / Instructional Film * Best Experimental Film * Best Promotional Film (Non-Commercial) * President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in English * President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Oriya * President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Punjabi

References

External links

National Film Awards Archives

Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India
{{National Film Awards National Film Awards (India) ceremonies 1972 film awards 1972 in Indian cinema