President Pratibha Devisingh Patil today presented the prestigious National Film Awards with veteran filmmaker K Balachander getting the Dadasaheb Phalke award and South India superstar Rajnikanth's son-in-law K Dhanush receiving the Best Actor award for the film 'Aadukalam'.
Amid a thunderous applause, the President conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke award for the year 2010 to Balachander at a glittering function at the Vigyan Bhavan here. The Dadasaheb Phalke award is conferred by the government for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema. The award consists of a ‘Swarna Kamal’, a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh and a shawl.
The highlight of this year's function was that four child artistes won the trophies for various films - Harsh Mayar for 'I am Kalam', Shantanu Ranganekar for 'Champions', Machindra Gadekar for 'Champions' and Vivek Chabukswar for 'Baboo Band Baaja'.
The Best Actor awards were bagged by Dhanush for the film 'Aadukalam' (Tamil) and Salim Kumar for 'Adaminte Makan Abu' (Malayalam) in which he played a protagonist in a serious role for the first time. The National Award for Best Feature Film was bagged by Malayalam flick 'Adaminte Makan Abu' produced by Salim Ahamad and Ashraf Bedi.
The Indira Gandhi award for Best Debut Film of a Director was given to 'Baboo Band Baaja' (Marathi) directed by Rajesh Pinjani and produced by Neeta Jadhav.
