National Film Award for Best Direction

National Film Award for Best Direction
Awarded for	Excellence in cinematic direction achievement
Sponsored by	National Film Development Corporation of India
Formerly called	Award for excellence in direction (1967–1976)
Reward(s)	Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) ₹3,00,000
First award	1967
Most recent winner	Sudipto Sen, The Kerala Story (2023)
Website	http://dff.nic.in/NFA.aspx

The National Film Award for Best Direction is an honour presented annually at India's National Film Awards ceremony by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), an organisation set up by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. ^[1] Since 1967, the award is given by a national panel appointed annually by the NFDC to a director for their work within Indian cinema. ^[1] It is presented by the president of India at a ceremony held in New Delhi. ^{[1] [2]}

The winner is given a "Swarna Kamal" (Golden Lotus) certificate and a cash prize of ₹3,00,000. ^[a] Including ties and repeat winners, the NFDC has presented a total of 53 Best Direction awards to 34 different directors. Although Indian cinema produces films in more than twenty languages, ^[1] the performances of films that have won awards are of nine languages: Bengali (16 awards), Malayalam (14 awards), Hindi (11 awards), Tamil (4 awards), English, Kannada and Marathi (3 awards each), Assamese and Punjabi (1 each).

The first recipient was Satyajit Ray, who was honoured at the 15th National Film Awards for directing the Bengali film Chiriyakhana (1967). ^[8] Ray is also the most frequent recipient, with six wins. ^[9] Adoor Gopalakrishnan has won 5 awards, which includes his debut Malayalam film Swayamvaram (1972). ^[10] Mrinal Sen has been awarded four times. He is also the only recipient to win the award for directing films in two different languages: Bengali and Hindi. ^[11] At the 19th National Film Awards, Girish Karnad and B.V. Karanth shared the award for co-directing the Kannada film Vamsha Vriksha (1972). ^[12]

Winners

Satyajit Ray is the most frequent recipient with six wins.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan has received the honour five times.

Mrinal Sen has been awarded four times.

Aparna Sen is the only woman director honored by this award.

List of award recipients, showing the year, film and language

Year [b]	Recipient	Film	Language	Ref
1967 (15th)	Satyajit Ray	Chiriyakhana	Bengali	[13]
1968 (16th)	Satyajit Ray	Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne	Bengali	[14]
1969 (17th)	Mrinal Sen	Bhuvan Shome	Hindi	[15]
1970 (18th)	Satyajit Ray	Pratidwandi	Bengali	[16]
1971 (19th)	B. V. Karanth	Vamsha Vriksha	Kannada	[17]
	Girish Karnad
1972 (20th)	Adoor Gopalakrishnan	Swayamvaram	Malayalam	[18]
1973 (21st)	Mani Kaul	Duvidha	Hindi	[19]
1974 (22nd)	Satyajit Ray	Sonar Kella	Bengali	[20]
1975 (23rd)	Satyajit Ray	Jana Aranya	Bengali	[21]
1976 (24th)	P. Lankesh	Pallavi	Kannada	[22]
1977 (25th)	G. Aravindan	Kanchana Sita	Malayalam	[23]
1978 (26th)	G. Aravindan	Thampu	Malayalam	[24]
1979 (27th)	Mrinal Sen	Ek Din Pratidin	Bengali	[25]
1980 (28th)	Mrinal Sen	Akaler Shandhaney	Bengali	[26]
1981 (29th)	Aparna Sen	36 Chowringhee Lane	English	[27]
1982 (30th)	Utpalendu Chakrabarty	Chokh	Bengali	[28]
1983 (31st)	Mrinal Sen	Khandhar	Hindi	[29]
1984 (32nd)	Adoor Gopalakrishnan	Mukhamukham	Malayalam	[30]
1985 (33rd)	Shyam Benegal	Trikal	Hindi	[31]
1986 (34th)	G. Aravindan	Oridathu	Malayalam	[32]
1987 (35th)	Adoor Gopalakrishnan	Anantaram	Malayalam	[33]
1988 (36th)	Shaji N. Karun	Piravi	Malayalam	[34]
1989 (37th)	Adoor Gopalakrishnan	Mathilukal	Malayalam	[35]
1990 (38th)	Tapan Sinha	Ek Doctor Ki Maut	Hindi	[36]
1991 (39th)	Satyajit Ray	Agantuk	Bengali	[37]
1992 (40th)	Goutom Ghosh	Padma Nadir Majhi	Bengali	[38]
1993 (41st)	T. V. Chandran	Ponthan Mada	Malayalam	[39]
1994 (42nd)	Jahnu Barua	Xagoroloi Bohudoor	Assamese	[40]
1995 (43rd)	Saeed Akhtar Mirza	Naseem	Hindi	[41]
1996 (44th)	Agathiyan	Kadhal Kottai	Tamil	[42]
1997 (45th)	Jayaraj	Kaliyattam	Malayalam	[43]
1998 (46th)	Rajeevnath	Janani	Malayalam	[44]
1999 (47th)	Buddhadeb Dasgupta	Uttara	Bengali	[45]
2000 (48th)	Rituparno Ghosh	Utsab	Bengali	[46]
2001 (49th)	B. Lenin	Ooruku Nooruper	Tamil	[47]
2002 (50th)	Aparna Sen	Mr. and Mrs. Iyer	English	[48]
2003 (51st)	Goutom Ghosh	Abar Aranye	Bengali	[49]
2004 (52nd)	Buddhadeb Dasgupta	Swapner Din	Bengali	[50]
2005 (53rd)	Rahul Dholakia	Parzania	English	[51]
2006 (54th)	Madhur Bhandarkar	Traffic Signal	Hindi	[3]
2007 (55th)	Adoor Gopalakrishnan	Naalu Pennungal	Malayalam	[52]
2008 (56th)	Bala	Naan Kadavul	Tamil	[53]
2009 (57th)	Rituparno Ghosh	Abohomaan	Bengali	[54]
2010 (58th)	Vetrimaaran	Aadukalam	Tamil	[55]
2011 (59th)	Gurvinder Singh	Anhe Ghore Da Daan	Punjabi	[56]
2012 (60th)	Shivaji Lotan Patil	Dhag	Marathi	[57]
2013 (61st)	Hansal Mehta	Shahid	Hindi	[58]
2014 (62nd)	Srijit Mukherji	Chotushkone	Bengali	[59]
2015 (63rd)	Sanjay Leela Bhansali	Bajirao Mastani	Hindi	[60]
2016 (64th)	Rajesh Mapuskar	Ventilator	Marathi	[61]
2017 (65th)	Jayaraj	Bhayanakam	Malayalam	[62]
2018 (66th)	Aditya Dhar	Uri: The Surgical Strike	Hindi	[63]
2019 (67th)	Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan	Bahattar Hoorain	Hindi	[64]
2020 (68th)	Sachy	Ayyappanum Koshiyum	Malayalam
2021 (69th)	Nikhil Mahajan	Godavari	Marathi
2022 (70th)	Sooraj Barjatya	Uunchai	Hindi	[65]
2023 (71st)	Sudipto Sen	The Kerala Story	Hindi	[66]

Footnotes

1. The cash prize was ₹2,50,000, from 54th National Film Awards (2006) until 69th National Film Awards (2021). ^[3] Before the 54th National Film Awards (2006), the cash prize was ₹50,000 (US$590), ^[4] ₹25,000 (US$300) during the 35th National Film Awards, ^[5] ₹20,000 (US$240) from 21st National Film Awards until 34th ^[6] and ₹20,000 (US$240) from 1967 to 1972. ^[7]
2. Denotes the year in which the film was censored by the Central Board of Film Certification.

References

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External links

• Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India