Bachchan won the Rajat Kamal award for Best Actor for his performance in Paa, while Hirani’s Aamir Khan starrer, 3 Idiots produced by Chopra won the award for Best Popular Film along with the Best Lyrics award (Swanand Kirkire for Behti Hawa Sa Tha Woh). This is the third time Hirani and Chopra have won a National Award. Both their Munnabhai films (Munnabhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munnabhai) have also previously won the National Award.
"It’s an extremely humble feeling when the audience has loved and cherished this film so much and now we are also getting recognized by getting a National Award,” added Hirani.
Chopra said, "It’s an overwhelming feeling; have just returned from US, where I was working for pre-production of my next and I landed here two days back and I get welcomed with such an overwhelming news. It’s really a proud moment for our production house."
Bachchan said, “I thank the Government of India and the National Awards committee for this great honor. Paa has bagged four National Awards, including Best Hindi Film, Best Supporting Actress by Arundhati Nag and Best Make-up by Chrisiten Tinsley & Dominie Till and I congratulate all of them for winning this prestigious award. I especially thank R. Balki – a gifted director whose exceptional vision and passion has created this wonderful film; Abhishek – who took complete charge of the project as the producer and Natasha & Dakshina for their valuable assistance on the make-up. Also a big thanks to Reliance for joining hands with us! This is an important success for AB Corp Ltd and the entire cast and crew who have helped make such a brilliant movie.”
"Both Well Done Abba and 3 Idiots win National Awards. I am truly privileged and honoured to have worked with the best. Thanks all," said Boman Irani.
The awards were announced in three categories Best Feature Film category under the chairpersonship of director Ramesh Sippy, Non Feature Film category under the chairpersonship of Mike Pandey, and Best Writing on Cinema under the chairpersonship of Samik Bandhopadhyay.
The other’s who bagged the award are: Arundhati Nag for the Best Supporting Actress for her role in Paa, Farook Sheikh who won the Rajat Kamal for Best Supporting Actor for Lahore. The Best Debut Director award went to Sanjay Puran Singh. The Swarna Kamal for Best Director went to Rituparno Ghosh for Abhomaan. The film also won Ananya Chatterjee the Best Actress Award. The award for Best Music and Best Music Director Award went to Amit Trivedi for Anurag Kashyap’s Dev.D. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s film Delhi 6 won the Rajat Kamal for National Integration along with the Best Production Design for Sameer Chanda, Shyam Benegal’s Well Done Abba, won the award for Best Film portraying social issues and the Best Feature Film award went to Malayalam film, Kutty Srank.
