The National Film Awards were established in 1954 to "encourage production of the films of a high aesthetic and technical standard and educational and culture value" and also planned to included awards for regional films.[3][4] In 1984, at the32nd National Film Awards various new categories were instituted for Swarna Kamal and Rajat Kamal. Categories like theBest Supporting Actor,Best Supporting Actress,Best Costume Design along with the Best Film on Other Social Issues were introduced for the Rajat Kamal. This category was introduced to be awarded annually for films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages. As of 2016[update] since its inception, the award has been present thirty-three times to thirty-six films. It has been presented for films in seven languages with the highest being twelve in Hindi, followed by ten in Malayalam, five in Tamil, four in Marathi, three in Bengali, two in Kannada and one in Telugu. It was not presented on two occasion in1985 (33rd ceremony) and2011 (59th ceremony).[5][6]
The inaugural award was conferred upon production banner Sanket (Rajat Kamal and₹ 30,000) and directorShankar Nag (Rajat Kamal and₹ 15,000) for their Kannada filmAccident for dealing with the bold topic of whistleblowing against political corruption and dealing with bad effects of alcoholism.[7] On five occasion the award was shared by two films: in 1987 by Tamil filmsOre Oru Gramathiley andVedham Pudhithu, in 1993 byJanani (Bengali) andNaaraayam (Malayalam), in 1994 byWheelchair (Bengali) andParinayam (Malayalam), in 2000 byMunnudi (Kannada) andVetri Kodi Kattu (Tamil), and in 2003 by Hindi filmsKoi... Mil Gaya andGangaajal.[8]
The award includes 'Rajat Kamal' (Silver Lotus) and cash prize to the producers and director each. The first award in 1984 had a monetary association of₹ 30,000 to the producers and₹ 15,000 to the directors.[7] In 1995 at the43rd award ceremony the Marathi filmDoghi was honoured and the cash prices were revised to₹30,000 each presented to the director duoSumitra Bhave–Sunil Sukthankar and co-producersNational Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) andDoordarshan.[9] The monetary association was again revised to₹ 1,50,000 to both the producers and directors in 2006 at the54th ceremony where producer Policherla Venkata Subbiah and directorSatish Kasetty's Telugu filmHope was the winner.[10]
†
Indicates a joint award for that year
Following are the award winners over the years:
List of films, showing the year (award ceremony), language(s), producer(s) and director(s)
