Kangna, Malaika to be present at national film awards function on Friday

NEW DELHI: Bollywood celebrities, including Kangna Ranaut and Malaika Arora Khan, have confirmed their presence for the 58th National Film Awards presentation ceremony to be held in Delhi on Friday. While Malaika along with her husband Arbaaz Khan will be present to pick her award for producer of the most wholesome entertainment of the year, Dabangg, Ranaut, a 2008 National Award winner, will be special guest for the evening.
Actor Salman Khan will be giving the awards a miss because of his medical treatment, but other stars that will be present include Vishal and Rekha Bharadwaj, Deepti Naval and Raima Sen.
The Khans and Bhardwajs are also part of another happy coincidence. They are amongst the six couples who are receiving the National Award this year. Other winners include Sachin Khanolkar and Bindiya Khanolkar for Mee Sindhutai Sapkal, K R Manoj and Ranjini Krishnan (A Pestering Journey), Shylaja Nag and B Suresha (Puttakkana Highway) and Ananya Chakraborti and Manish Chakraborti (Understanding Trafficking).
The awards will also see an unusually large number of child artistes. Five child artistes have won the national awards this year, including Harsh Mayar for I am Kalam, Shantanu Ranganekar and Machindra Gadkar (Champions), Vivek Chabukswar (Baboo Band Baaja) and Suraj Pawar for Pistulya.
The award ceremony will host performances by Rekha Bharadwaj and Suresh Wadkar, who have both won best playback for Ishqiya and Mee Sindhutai Sapkal, respectively. Among the other awardees are Gautam Ghose, who directed Moner Manush that has won the Nargis Dutt award for the best feature film on national integration. Adaminte Makan Abu (Malayalam) has won the best feature film and Baboo Band Bajaa (Marathi) has won the Indira Gandhi award for best debut film of a director.