70th National Film Awards 2024: Mani Ratnam, AR Rahman receive awards for Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1; Rishab Shetty and Nithya Menen win Best Actor and Actress

All the stars were all smiles as they received their respective awards from President Murmu.

The prestigious 70^th National Film Awards ceremony is taking place today at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. The event, which recognizes the best of the Indian film industry for the year 2022, is being graced by the presence of President Droupadi Murmu. The National Film Awards are the highest honours bestowed upon filmmakers in India. The awards are given in various categories, including Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Music.

70th National Film Awards 2024: Mani Ratnam, AR Rahman receive awards for Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1; Rishab Shetty and Nithya Menen win Best Actor and Actress

Rishab Shetty was awarded with Best Actor title for Kantara whereas Nithya Menen won Best Actress for Thiruchitrambalam. Veteran filmmaker Mani Ratnam won the Best Tamil Film award for Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1 whereas AR Rahman won Best Music Director for the same film.

Speaking to Doordarshan, the veteran filmmaker said, “It is a special film as it comes from a huge classic novel, the most loved Tamil novel. I am glad it is recognised, and I am getting an award for it.”

AR Rahman also spoke about his win and said, “It feels like everything has come full circle—my first was for Mani Ratnam, and now the second one is for him again. This makes it even more special.”

All the stars were all smiles as they received their respective awards from President Murmu.

The Kantara star, Rishab Shetty said, "Kantara has been a pure passion project for me as the film and its story is very personal to me as it's a story from my native place. Winning National Awards reinforces our belief in making rooted content that we truly believe in as we did everything against the conventional norms. The success and the support from the audience for Kantara is the pure blessing of Daiva. With this film people from every region can connect to their roots proving regional is universal. I’m glad that I had partners like Hombale in this journey who always stood by me on this unique film which by the way was the most expensive film I ever made by a distance."