Bollywood shines at the 56th National Awards ceremony

New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) The 56th National Film Awards ceremony here Friday was high on the Bollywood quotient owing to the presence of celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut and Farhan Akhtar. President Pratibha Patil gave away the awards to the winners.

Bollywood bagged 13 awards at the ceremony.

Priyanka Chopra came in a white thread-work sari to receive the Best Actress award for her role in "Fashion", Kangana walked up the podium in a black salwar-kameez to take the Best Supporting Actress award for the same film.

Arjun Rampal, who attended the award ceremony with his wife Mehr Jessia, looked suave in a black bandhgala suit when he received the award for Best Supporting Actor for "Rock On!". Farhan Akhtar too was present at the event, where his debut movie as an actor was given the Best Film award.

Chinni Prakash and his wife Rekha Prakash received the Best Choreography award for the song "Azeem-o-shaan shehenshah" in Ashutosh Gowariker's epic "Jodhaa Akbar". The song depicts dance forms of different Indian states.

Fashion designer Neeta Lulla, wearing a plain green sari, received the Best Costume Designer award for styling actress Aishwarya Rai in "Jodhaa Akbar".

Nandita Das' directorial debut "Firaaq", which was based on the 2002 Gujarat riots, won the awards for Best Editing for A. Sreekar Prasad and Best Art Direction for Gautam Sen.

Neeraj Pandey's "A Wednesday" bagged the Indira Gandhi award for Best First Film of a director and Yash Raj Films' "Roadside Romeo" bagged the Best Animation Film award.

Dibakar Banerjee's satirical "Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!" was given the award for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment, "Mumbai Meri Jaan" directed by Nishikant Kamat got the award for best special effects ("Govardhan") and "Thanks Maa" has got Shams Patel the Best Child Artist award.

Marathi film "Jogva", a poignant tale of one woman's journey to break free from the shackles of discrimination, sexual oppression and servitude to find true happiness, bagged the maximum honours.

Its lead actor Upendra Limaya won the best actor award and the film was adjudged the best film on social issues. The movie also won two awards each for playback singers Shreya Ghoshal and Hariharan for the song "Jeev dangla gungla rangla". Music composers Ajay and Atul also won the best music direction award for their songs for the film.

Annirudh Roy-Chowdhary's Bengali project "Antaheen" got four awards, including for best feature film. The film, about love and loneliness, won awards for best cinematography and best lyrics, while Shreya Ghoshal won the award for best singer for the song "Pherari mon". Shreya couldn't attend the function and Roy-Chowdhary receieved it on her behalf.

Marathi film "Gandha" bagged two awards - best screenplay  for Sachin Kundalkar and best audiography  for Pramod J. Thomas.

The award for the best film on family values went to Sooni Taraporewallah's English film "Little Zizou" that revolves around the Parsi community.

Kannada film "Gubbachigalu" got the best children's film award.

The special jury honour was given to Malayalam film "Bioscope", produced by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and directed by K.M. Madhusudhanan.

The award for best direction went to Bala for Tamil film "Naan Kadauul".

The winners of best feature film in regional languages are "Mon Jei" (Assamese), "Shob Charitro Kalponik" (Bengali), "Vimukthi" (Kannada), "Thirakkda" (Malayalam), "Harishchandrachi Factory" (Marathi), "Veranam Airan" (Tamil) and "1940 Lookagramam" (Telugu).

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni was present at the event, which was compered by actress Divya Dutta.