National Film Awards: Rajkumar Periasamy wins Best Director, Pushpa 2 bags Best Screenplay

NEW DELHI: The 72nd National Film Awards, honouring the best Indian films certified in 2024, recognised several outstanding achievements across technical, music and regional film categories. While Mammootty (Bramayugam) and Kartik Aaryan (Chandu Champion) shared the Best Actor award and Yami Gautam won Best Actress for Article 370, several other films also emerged as major winners.

Tamil filmmaker Rajkumar Periasamy won the Best Director award for Amaran, adding another prestigious honour for the film. Sukumar, who wrote and directed the Pan-India blockbuster Pushpa 2, won the award for Best Screenplay (Original), while Malayalam cinematographer Shehnad Jalal won Best Cinematography for Bramayugam.

In the music categories, Shashwat Sachdev received the Best Music Direction award for Article 370. G.V. Prakash Kumar won Best Background Score for Amaran, while Vaikom Vijayalakshmi was honoured as Best Female Playback Singer for the song Angu Vaana Konilu from the Malayalam film ARM.

The Best Action Choreography award went to stunt masters Anbariv for their work in the Tamil action drama Maharaja.

Regional cinema also received major recognition at this year's awards. Feminichi Fathima won Best Malayalam Film, Srikanth was named Best Hindi Film, and Raayan received the award for Best Tamil Film.