72nd National Film Awards 2026 Explained in Simple Words

The 72nd National Film Awards will be presented on 22 September 2026 at Ekta Nagar, near the Statue of Unity in Gujarat’s Narmada district — the first time in more than half a century that the ceremony has left New Delhi. The winners themselves were announced on 18 July 2026. This explainer says in very plain words what these awards actually are, why they behave so differently from every other film award, and the facts most likely to be asked in SSC CGL and CHSL, RRB NTPC, banking general awareness, UPSC and State PSC.

The One Idea: These Are Not Industry Awards. They Are State Awards.

Every other film award in India is given by a magazine, a studio or an industry body. The National Film Awards are given by the Government of India. Hold that one fact and every strange feature of these awards stops being strange.

• Why the President hands them over. Because they are conferred by the State, not by an industry. President Droupadi Murmu is presenting them.
• Why a government ministry is involved. They sit under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
• Why a jury decides, not a popularity vote. The government appoints a jury; there is no public voting and no box-office qualification.
• Why there is a prize for a State government. The Most Film Friendly State award ranks state governments on how easy they make film-making. No private award would ever do that.
• Why the money is small. A top award carries ₹3 lakh. The honour is the point, not the cheque.
• Why regional cinema does so well. A national government cannot be seen to reward only Hindi films, so the categories are deliberately spread across languages.

That is the hinge: ask “who is giving this award?” and the rest follows.

The Second Idea: Look at the Flower

There is a neat decoder inside the award names themselves. Every National Film Award is a lotus, and the metal tells you the rank.

Every winner also receives a medallion and a certificate of merit. So if a question asks what a particular winner received, the answer is decided by which lotus the category carries — not by how famous the winner is.

What the Awards Are, and Since When

The three-section structure is worth memorising, because it explains why a book can win a National Film Award. Best Writing on Cinema is a section in its own right, not an afterthought.

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award Is a Different Thing

This is the distinction candidates most often get wrong. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is not a category of the National Film Awards. It is a separate lifetime achievement honour that happens to be presented at the same ceremony.

Note the prize gap: ₹10 lakh for the Phalke, against ₹3 lakh for a Swarna Kamal. That gap is itself the clue that it is a different order of honour.

The 72nd Edition: The Names to Know

In all, 92 winners are being honoured. Notice how the list falls across Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Marathi — the spread is not an accident, it is the design.

A caution: full winner lists change with every edition and are long. Learn the structure — Swarna Kamal and Rajat Kamal, the three sections, the Phalke — plus this year’s headline names. Do not try to memorise all 92.

Why the Venue Change Is the Real News

The ceremony has been a Delhi fixture for so long that most people assume it must be held there. It need not be, and it once was not.

The last time the National Film Awards were presented outside New Delhi was in 1970, at the 17th edition, in Madras — now Chennai. That is more than five decades ago.

And here is the detail worth carrying into an exam hall, because it is the kind of connection that sticks: that 1970 ceremony in Madras was the very ceremony at which the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was given for the first time, to Devika Rani. The last time these awards left Delhi, India’s highest film honour was being handed over for the first time. They are leaving Delhi again now.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has indicated that future ceremonies may move around the country rather than staying in the capital. Whether that becomes a settled practice is not yet established — treat it as an intention, not a rule.

Where This Fits with India’s Other Honours

It helps to place these awards next to the rest of the honours system. The Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards are civilian honours covering every field, announced on Republic Day; the National Film Awards are a single-field State award announced and presented on their own calendar. Both are conferred by the President; only one of them is about cinema. Our capsule on awards and honours of India sets out the full civilian and gallantry structure.

They also sit inside the same cultural machinery as the Sangeet Natak Akademi, whose recognition decides which dance forms count as classical — explained in our capsule on classical dances and festivals. And the reason a State award for cinema exists at all traces back to a constitutional idea: culture and the arts are subjects the State is expected to promote, which our Constitution capsule covers.

Practice Questions

Q1. The 72nd National Film Awards ceremony is being held at:
(a) Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi (b) Ekta Nagar, Gujarat (c) Chennai, Tamil Nadu (d) Mumbai, Maharashtra
Answer: (b) Ekta Nagar, Gujarat Ekta Nagar, near the Statue of Unity in Gujarat’s Narmada district, on 22 September 2026. The winners were announced earlier, on 18 July 2026, in New Delhi. This is the first time in more than five decades that the ceremony has been held outside the capital.

Q2. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted in which year, and who received it first?
(a) 1954, Shyamchi Aai’s producer (b) 1969, Devika Rani (c) 1974, Satyajit Ray (d) 1980, Prithviraj Kapoor
Answer: (b) 1969, Devika Rani 1969, with Devika Rani as the first recipient. It is a lifetime achievement honour, separate from the National Film Award categories, and carries a Swarna Kamal medallion, a shawl and ₹10 lakh.

Q3. Swarna Kamal and Rajat Kamal refer to:
(a) Two separate film festivals (b) The Golden Lotus and Silver Lotus tiers of the National Film Awards (c) Awards for Hindi and regional cinema respectively (d) The highest civilian and military film honours
Answer: (b) The Golden Lotus and Silver Lotus tiers of the National Film Awards Golden Lotus and Silver Lotus. The Swarna Kamal carries ₹3 lakh and covers the top honours; the Rajat Kamal carries ₹2 lakh and covers the remaining categories. Both come with a medallion and a certificate of merit.

Q4. The National Film Awards are administered under which ministry?
(a) Ministry of Culture (b) Ministry of Education (c) Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (d) Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
Answer: (c) Ministry of Information and Broadcasting The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. They were run by the Directorate of Film Festivals from 1974 until 2022, when the National Film Development Corporation took over their administration.

Q5. Which film won Best Feature Film at the 72nd National Film Awards?
(a) Amaran (b) Bramayugam (c) Article 370 (d) Chandu Champion
Answer: (c) Article 370 Article 370, a Hindi film, whose lead Yami Gautam also won Best Actress. Rajkumar Periasamy won Best Direction for Amaran, and Mammootty (Bramayugam) shared Best Actor with Kartik Aaryan (Chandu Champion).

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Calling the Dadasaheb Phalke Award a National Film Award category. It is a separate lifetime achievement honour presented at the same ceremony.
• Putting the awards under the Ministry of Culture. It is Information and Broadcasting.
• Mixing up the two lotuses. Swarna is gold and ₹3 lakh; Rajat is silver and ₹2 lakh.
• Confusing the announcement with the ceremony. The winners were announced on 18 July 2026; the awards are presented on 22 September 2026.
• Saying the awards have never left Delhi. They did, in 1970, at Madras.
• Assuming the awards go by box-office success. A government-appointed jury decides; there is no public vote.
• Forgetting the third section. Alongside Feature and Non-Feature Films there is Best Writing on Cinema.

Test Yourself

Reading an explainer is not the same as recalling it under time pressure. Our Test Your Knowledge page carries free current affairs and Static GK quizzes, each with an explanation for every answer and a downloadable PDF for offline revision.

Sources: published reporting on the 72nd National Film Awards, including the ceremony date of 22 September 2026 at Ekta Nagar, the announcement of winners on 18 July 2026, the figure of 92 winners and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award to Anant Nag, corroborated across independent outlets; and established reference material on the history and structure of the National Film Awards and of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. The ceremony falls on the day after this post was written and is described here as scheduled. Full winner lists run to dozens of names and are not reproduced in full.