The National Film Award for Best Screenplay is one of the categories in 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 ...

presented annually 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 ...

, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India. It is one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with ''Rajat Kamal'' (Silver Lotus). The award is announced for films produced in a year across the country, in all Indian languages. , the award comprises a ''Rajat Kamal'', a certificate, and a cash prize of 50,000. The National Film Awards were established in 1954 to "encourage production of the films of a high aesthetic and technical standard and educational and culture value" and also planned to include awards for regional films. The awards were instituted as the "State Awards for Films" but were renamed to "National Film Awards" at the 15th National Film Awards in 1967 and a new category of award for Best Screenplay was introduced, presented with a plaque and a cash prize. At the 57th National Film Awards in 2009, the

Screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...

award was reclassified into three different awards: Screenplay Writer (Original), Screenplay Writer (Adapted), and

Dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

s. Although the Indian film industry produces films in around twenty languages and dialects, as of 2016, the seventy-three unique writers who have been awarded, have worked in nine 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 ...

(twenty 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 ...

(twelve 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 ...

(eleven 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 ...

(eight 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 * * ...

(seven 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 ...

(five 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 ...

(three awards), English (two awards),

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

and Assamese (one award each). The inaugural award, in 1967, of this category was presented to

S. L. Puram Sadanandan S. L. Puram Sadanandan (15 April 1928 – 16 September 2005) was an Indian playwright and film scriptwriter from Kerala, India. Career In 1967, he got the first ever National Film Award for Best Screenplay for the film '' Agniputhri''. Dea ...

for the Malayalam film ''

Agniputhri Agniputhri is a 1967 Indian Malayalam-language film, directed by M. Krishnan Nair (director), M. Krishnan Nair and produced by Prem Navas. The film stars Prem Nazir, Sheela, T. R. Omana and T. S. Muthaiah. The film had musical score and songs co ...

''. No award was presented at the 23rd National Film Awards (1975). , Malayalam author and screenplay writer

M. T. Vasudevan Nair Madath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Nair (born 1933 July 15 ), popularly known as MT, is an Indian author, screenplay writer and film director. He is a prolific and versatile writer in modern Malayalam literature, and is one of the masters of post-I ...

holds the record of winning maximum awards in category with four wins for the films: ''

Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha ''Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha'' () is a 1989 Indian Malayalam-language epic historical drama film directed by Hariharan, written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair, and starring Mammootty, Suresh Gopi, Balan K. Nair, Captain Raju and Madhavi. The film w ...

'' (1989), '' Kadavu'' (1991), ''

Sadayam ''Sadayam'' () is a 1992 Indian Malayalam-language psychological drama written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair and directed by Sibi Malayil. It stars Mohanlal, Thilakan, Nedumudi Venu, Murali, Sreenivasan, Maathu, K. P. A. C. Lalitha, and T. G. Ra ...

'' (1992), and '' Parinayam'' (1994). Bengali filmmaker

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...

was presented the award in 1993 posthumously for the film ''

Uttoran ''The Broken Journey'' ( bn, Uttoran) is a 1994 Bengali drama film directed by Sandip Ray. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. It won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay at the 41st Nationa ...

''; he had earlier received awards for ''

Pratidwandi ''Pratidwandi'' ( en, The Adversary, Siddharta and the City, italic=yes) is a 1970 Indian Bengali drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray based on the novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay. It is the first part of the Calcutta Trilogy. ''Pratid ...

'' (1970) and ''

Sonar Kella ''Sonar Kella'' ( bn, সোনার কেল্লা), also ''Shonar Kella'', is a 1971 mystery novel written by by Bengali writer and filmmaker Satyajit Ray. In 1974, Ray directed a film adaption of the book, also named ''Sonar Kella'', ...

'' (1974). At the 59th National Film Awards in 2011,

Girish Kulkarni Girish Pandurang Kulkarni (born 25 November 1977) is an Indian actor, writer, and producer. He is a recipient of two National Film Awards namely, National Film Award for Best Actor in 2011 for his performance in ''Deool'' and National Film Awar ...

was awarded both the Best Actor and Best Dialogue Awards for the

Marathi film Marathi cinema is an Indian film industry of Marathi-language motion pictures. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Based in old Mumbai, it is the oldest film industry of Indian cinema. The first Marathi film to be released in India was '' S ...

Deool ''Deool'' () is a 2011 Indian Marathi dark comedy directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni and produced by Abhijeet Gholap. The film stars Girish Kulkarni, Nana Patekar, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Sharvani Pillai, Sonali Kulkarni in lead roles. The film ...

''. The film was itself was adjudged the

Best Feature Film Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...

. In 2015 at the 63rd ceremony, the awards for both Original Screenplay and Dialogue were jointly presented to

Juhi Chaturvedi ''Juhi Chaturvedi'' (born 1975) is an Indian screenwriter who works in Hindi films. An advertising professional based in Mumbai, Chaturvedi has written scripts for Bollywood films ''Vicky Donor'' (2012), ''Piku'' (2015), ''October'' (2018) and ' ...

and

Himanshu Sharma Himanshu Sharma is an Indian film writer and producer who works in Hindi cinema. He is most well known as the writer of the ''Tanu Weds Manu series'' (2011 & 2015) and '' Raanjhanaa'' (2013), all of which were considered highly successful dom ...

for their films ''

Piku ''Piku'' is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film directed by Shoojit Sircar and produced by N. P. Singh, Ronnie Lahiri and Sneha Rajani. It stars Deepika Padukone as the titular protagonist, Amitabh Bachchan and Irrfan Khan, with Mous ...

'' and '' Tanu Weds Manu: Returns'', respectively. , sixty-eight awards have been presented for Original Screenplay writing, eighteen for Adapted Screenplay writing, and thirteen for dialogue. The most recent recipients of the awards are

Sudha Kongara Sudha Kongara Prasad is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. She made her directorial debut with the Telugu film ''Andhra Andagadu'' in 2008, and later directed the Tamil film '' ''Drohi'. In 2016, ...

and Shalini Ushadevi (Screenplay Writer (Original) for Tamil 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 ...

'') and Mandonne Ashwin (Dialogue for another Tamil film ''

Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

''), who were 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 ...

Award

The first recipient of the award,

, was presented with a plaque and 5000 cash prize. The award was revised in 1973 at the 21st ceremony to include 10,000 cash, a silver medal and a certificate. It was shared by

Mrinal Sen Mrinal Sen (''Beng.'' মৃণাল সেন; 14 May 1923 – 30 December 2018) was an Indian film director, and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Bengali, and few Hindi and Telugu language films. Regarded as one of the finest Ind ...

and Ashish Burman for their Bengali film '' Padatik''. At the 54th awarding ceremony in 2006, the next revision of the award was declared to include cash remuneration of 50,000 which was presented to

Abhijat Joshi Abhijat Joshi (born 1 December 1969) is an Indian screenwriter, film director, producer and editor who works in Hindi cinema. His is known for collaboration with Vinod Chopra Productions and director Rajkumar Hirani, as the screenwriter for ...

Rajkumar Hirani Rajkumar Hirani (born 20 November 1962), also called Raju Hirani, is an Indian filmmaker, director, producer and editor known for his works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several accolades, including three National Film Awards and eleve ...

and

Vidhu Vinod Chopra Vidhu Vinod Chopra (born 5 September 1952) is an Indian film director, producer, editor, screenwriter, lyricist and actor. His well-known films as director are '' Parinda'' (1988), '' 1942: A Love Story'' (1994). He is also known for producing ...

for their Hindi film ''

Lage Raho Munna Bhai ''Lage Raho Munna Bhai'' (; ) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language satirical comedy drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who co-wrote the screenplay with Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It is the follow-up ...

'' in which

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

's philosophy of non-violence was depicted. For fourteen times, multiple writers were awarded for their work in a single film;

and Ashish Burman for '' Padatik'' (1973),

Satyadev Dubey Satyadev Dubey (13 July 1936 – 25 December 2011) was an Indian theatre director, actor, playwright, screenwriter & film director. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1971. He won the 1978 National Film Award for Best Scre ...

Shyam Benegal Shyam Benegal (born 14 December 1934) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received ...

, and

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 ...

for ''

Bhumika Bhūmikā (Sanskrit: भूमिका) is derived from the word, ''Bhūmi'', meaning ''earth'', ''soil'', ''ground'' or ''character''. Hinduism The Upanishads speak about the seven ''bhūmikās'' or ''jñānabhūmis'' (fields of knowledge) or ...

'' (1977), T. S. Ranga and

T. S. Nagabharana Talakadu Srinivasaiah Nagabharana (born 23 January 1953), commonly known as T. S. Nagabharana, is an Indian film director, in the Kannada film industry and a pioneer of parallel cinema. He is one of the few film directors to have straddled t ...

for ''

Grahana Grahana () refers to the Sanskrit term for an eclipse. Eclipses are regarded to be noteworthy phenomena in Hinduism, and legends involving their origin and purpose are featured in Hindu mythology. Literature An eclipse is classified as either ...

'' (1978), Ashok Mishra and

Saeed Akhtar Mirza Saeed Akhtar Mirza (born 30 June 1943) is an Indian screenwriter and director in Hindi films and television. He is the maker of notable parallel films such as ''Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho!'' (1984), '' Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai'' (1980), '' ...

for '' Naseem'' (1995),

Manoj Tyagi Manoj Tyagi (born 1968 ) is an Indian screenwriter and film director in the Hindi cinema. He had won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay twice, for ''Page 3'' (2005) and '' Apaharan'' (2006), apart from Filmfare Award for Best Screenpl ...

and Nina Arora for ''

Page 3 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishi ...

'' (2004),

Prakash Jha Prakash Jha (born 27 February 1952) is an Indian film producer, actor, director and screenwriter, mostly known for his political and socio-political films such as “Hip Hip Hurray” (1984), '' Damul'' (1984), ''Mrityudand'' (1997), ''Gangaaj ...

, Shridhar Raghavan, and

for ''

Apaharan ''Apaharan'' (English: ''Abduction'') is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language crime action film directed by Prakash Jha and stars Ajay Devgn, Bipasha Basu and Nana Patekar in the lead roles. It is the story of a complex relationship and clashing ideo ...

'' (2005),

, and

for ''

'' (2006), Gopal Krishan Pai and

Girish Kasaravalli Girish Kasaravalli (born 3 December 1950) is an Indian film director, in the Kannada cinema, and one of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema. Known internationally for his works, Kasaravalli has garnered fourteen National Film Awards, including f ...

for ''

Kanasemba Kudureyaneri ''Kanasembo Kudureyaneri'' ( kn, ಕನಸೆಂಬೋ ಕುದುರೆಯನೇರಿ, ''Riding a Stallion of a Dream'') is a 2010 Indian Kannada language film directed by noted Kannada film director Girish Kasaravalli, based on an anthology ...

'' (2009), P. F. Mathews and Harikrishna for ''

Kutty Srank ''Kutty Srank'' ( en, The Sailor of Hearts) is a 2010 Indian Malayalam arthouse film directed by Shaji N. Karun. Mammootty played the title role for the film. The film was produced by Reliance Entertainment under the banner of Big Motion Pict ...

'' (2009),

Anant Mahadevan Anant Mahadevan (born 28 August 1950), also credited as Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, is an Indian screenwriter, actor, and film director of Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil films and television shows. Having been an integral part of the Indi ...

and Sanjay Pawar for ''

Mee Sindhutai Sapkal ''Mee Sindhutai Sapkal'' (trans. I Am Sindhutai Sapkal) is an Indian Marathi film. The film was directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan. The film stars Tejaswini Pandit, Jyoti Chandekar, Upendra Limaye, and Neena Kulkarni in leading roles. Plot ...

'' (2010),

Vikas Bahl Vikas Bahl is an Indian filmmaker, best known for directing and scripting the comedy drama film ''Queen'' (2013). Early life and education Bahl was born and brought up in Lajpat Nagar in Delhi, and his father worked with the Indian Oil Corpor ...

Nitesh Tiwari Nitesh Tiwari is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and lyricist known for his works in Bollywood. He debuted as a co-director in '' Chillar Party'' (2011) which won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film for that year. He then he ...

, and

Vijay Maurya Vijay Maurya is an Indian actor, writer and director who works in Hindi films and theatre. He is best known for his work in the 2019 Hindi musical film ''Gully Boy.'' Early life Maurya was born and raised in Mumbai, Maharashtra. His brother, A ...

for '' Chillar Party'' (2011), Bhavesh Mandalia and

Umesh Shukla Umesh Shukla is an Indian director who works in Bollywood films. He is best known for his work in the critically acclaimed Comedy film, comedy Drama (film and television), drama film ''Oh My God (2012 film), Oh My God''. He made his directorial ...

for ''

OMG – Oh My God! ''Oh My God!'' is a 2012 Indian Hindi language satirical comedy-drama film written and directed by Umesh Shukla and produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, S Spice Studios, Grazing Goat Pictures and Playtime Creations. The storyline is based ...

'' (2012),

Sriram Raghavan Sriram Raghavan (born 22 June 1963) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. He is primarily considered an auteur of neo-noir action thrillers. Raghavan made his directorial debut with '' Ek Hasina Thi'' (2004). H ...

, Arijit Biswas, Yogesh Chandekar,

Hemanth Rao Hemanth M. Rao is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Kannada cinema. He rose to fame following the success of his directorial debut ''Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu'' (2016). Career Rao took to films after completing his gradu ...

, Pooja Ladha Surti for ''

Andhadhun ''Andhadhun'' () is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language black comedy crime thriller film co-written and directed by Sriram Raghavan. It stars Tabu, Ayushmann Khurrana, Radhika Apte and Anil Dhawan. The film tells the story of a blind piano player ...

'' (2018),

and Shalini Ushadevi for ''

'' (2020). Shyamoli Banerjee Deb, one of the jury members at the 53rd National Film Awards, filed a petition objecting to the selections in five awards categories; the Best Feature Film in Hindi, the Best First Film of a Director, the

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 ...

, the Best Screenplay, and the Best Special Effects. Deb challenged the decision to confer the award to

, Shridhar Raghavan, and

for the Hindi film ''

'' and claimed that the film was not in the primary selection list. The

Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi (IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. ...

put a

stay Stay may refer to: Places * Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US Law * Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment * Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a tri ...

on the announcement and requested a reply from the

. Fourteen months later, Justice B. D. Ahmed removed the stay and the award was announced for ''Apaharan''.

Winners

Following are the award winners over the years:

References

External links

Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India

National Film Awards Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Film Award For Best Screenplay

Screenwriting awards for film