Planet Marathi wins big at 68th National Awards: Goshta Eka Paithanichi wins Best Marathi Feature, Siddharth Menon wins Best Actor for June

The Jury for the 68^th National Film Awards announced the winners for the year 2020 here today. Ahead of the announcement, the Chairperson and other Jury members called on the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shri Anurag Thakur and presented him with the selections for the Awards. Shri Thakur has congratulated all the winners and said 2020 was a particularly difficult year for films due to the COVID pandemic, yet the nominations consisted of great works. The Minister also thanked the Jury for diligently going through the entries and selecting the best for the awards.

The Jury comprised of eminent film makers and film personalities from across the Indian cine-world. The awards were announced by Shri Chitrartha Singh, Chairperson, Non-Feature Jury, Shri Anant Vijay, Chairperson, Best Writing on Cinema Jury and Shri Dharam Gulati, Feature Film Jury (Member – Central Panel) in presence of Ms. Neerja Sekhar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Madhya Pradesh wins Most Film Friendly State award while Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh get Special Mention. ‘The Longest Kiss’ by Kishwar Desai wins Best Book on Cinema for the year while Malayalam book ‘MT Anunahvangalude Pusthakam’ and Odia book ‘Kali Paine Kalira Cinema’ win special mention.

Best Feature Film award has been bagged by the Tamil movie ‘Soorarai Pottru’ directed by Sudha Kongara. ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’ grabs Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Best Actor award for 2020 is shared between Suriya for ‘Soorarai Pottru’ and Ajay Devgn for the Hindi movie ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’. Manoj Muntashir has won the award for Best Lyrics for the Hindi movie ‘Saina’.

Akshay Vilas Bardapurkar’s newly launched production company and OTT platform Planet Marathi won two big awards. Goshta Eka Paithanichi directed by Shantanu Ganesh Rode won Best Marathi Feature Film award, whereas Siddharth Menon won Best Actor award for feature film June in a Special Jury Mention.