President Honours Talent At 62nd National Film Awards

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee presented the 62nd National Film Awards at a glittering ceremony here studded with talent representing the diversity of the Indian film industry. Shashi Kapoor, honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke award this year, couldn’t attend and the veteran actor will be feted in Mumbai soon.

With 45 awards in Feature Film category and a total of 21 awards in the Non-Feature film category, the award ceremony was attended by talents from Bollywood along with regional film industries Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Assamese.

It also saw performances by 62nd National Film Award winners – Sukhwinder Singh, who won Best Male Playback Singer for the song “Bismil” from “Haider”, and Uttara Unnikrishanan, who bagged the Best Playback Female Singer for the song “Azhagu” from Tamil movie “Saivam”.

A special film on Shashi Kapoor was also shown on the occasion, where Pallavi Joshi and Rajat Kapoor played the hosts.

The president too gave “special congratulations” to the ailing 77-year-old actor.

“My special congratulation is to Shri Shashi Kapoor, who has been honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award this year. His contribution to cinema has been tremendous. He is a true living legend. He began his career as a child artist in the films ‘Aag’ and ‘Awara’, and then we saw him as a flamboyant hero in many blockbuster films.

“He made his mark not only as an actor, but also as a producer and remarkable contribution to the Indian cinema, where he balanced his work in theatre and cinema. Shri Sashi Kapoor is the third person to win the Dadasaheb Phalke award in his family — the other two being Prithviraj Kapoor and Raj Kapoor. I wish him a long and healthy life,” he said.
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