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 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, ...

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

. 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 ...

(22 awards), Tamil (7 awards), Bengali (6 awards),

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

(6 awards), Telugu (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 (3 awards), Marathi (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 The 15th National Film Awards, presented by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in 1967. Ceremony took place at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 25 November 1968 and awards were given by ...

(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, and Tabu who have won the award two times. Sharada, Archana and Shobana 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'' 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'' 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'' in 2001. As of 2020, the late Monisha Unni 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 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 P ...

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 ...

''.