Marathi debutants strike gold at the 66th National Film Awards

While Bollywood dominated the 66th edition of the National Film Awards, the Marathi film industry too managed to make its strong presence felt by winning nine awards. What is interesting to note here is that out of nine awards, four were bagged by first-timers...
Newbies shine
Needless to say, Marathi debutants enjoyed their moment of glory at the National Film Awards by winning in various important categories.
Addinath M Kothare’s directorial debut 'Paani', that is inspired by a true story of an activist living in a drought-prone area, received the Best Film on Environment Conservation award. Interestingly, this is the second time that a Priyanka Chopra Jonas-produced Marathi venture has won a National Award. PeeCee’s debut Marathi production Ventilator had bagged three National Awards in 2017. Naal’s director Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti has also received the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director. For the same film, another debutant, Shrinivas Pokale won the award in the Best Child Artiste category. Gautam Vaze bagged the award of Best Director for his debut directorial film Aai Shappath in the non-feature category.
Time for encore!
Lyricist-actor Swanand Kirkire and director Shivaji Lotan Patil received this coveted honour yet again, this year. Two-time National Award winner Swanand won his third National Award, this time in the Best Supporting Actor category for his superlative performance in Chumbak, an Akshay Kumar production. Shivaji, who has earlier received a National Award for Dhag (2012), won this year for his yet-to-release directorial Bhonga, which was declared the Best Marathi Film.
Marathi cinema takes centre stage
Among others, Gaurav Varma won the Rajat Kamal for Best Audiography award for 'Tendlya'.
In the non-feature category, 'Kharvas' directed by Aditya Jambhale won the award of Best Short Fiction film and Kedar Diwekar won the award of Best Music Director for the Marathi film 'Jyoti'.