Amitabh, Kangana win National Awards

Bollywood won big at the 63rd National Awards on Monday with Amitabh Bachchan and Kangana Ranaut scooping up Best Actor and Best Actress awards for Piku and Tanu Weds Manu Returns respectively.

SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus Baahubali emerged as the Best Film and Sanjay Leela Bhansali won in the best director category for his period drama, Bajirao Mastani.

Earlier, Bollywood director Ramesh Sippy and actor-director Satish Kaushik handed over the recommendations for the awards to information and broadcasting minister Arun



Jaitley.

This is fourth National Award for Amitabh Bachchan who had earlier won for Agneepath, Paa and Black. For Kangana, this comes as the second consecutive win. She was adjudged the Best Actress last year for Vikas Bahl’s Queen, which also emerged as the Best Film. Kangana has earlier won the Best Supporting Actress award for Fashion in 2008.

Ramesh Sippy chaired the 11-member jury for the selection of movies in 2016. While the nominees had a strong presence of regional movies, Bollywood emerged as a clear winner this year.