68th National Film Awards: Ajay Devgn, Suriya and Asha Parekh honoured at prestigious ceremony

The 68th National Film Awards ceremony on Friday honoured some of the bests from Indian cinema at an event held in New Delhi's Vigyan Bhawan.

Big celebrities such as Ajay Devgn, Asha Parekh, Suriya and more were honoured at the prestigious awards ceremony which at present is running a year behind schedule due to the delay caused by Covid-19 pandemic. The winners for the 68th National Awards were announced in July.

This Friday's big event was live-streamed by the Press Information Bureau on its social media handles.


Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn shared the Best Actor title with South superstar Suriya for his performance in the period drama 'Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior'. The movie also won the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Meanwhile, 'Soorarai Pottru' won the Best Feature Film.
Veteran actress Parekh was honoured with the Dada Saheb Phalke award, the highest recognition in the field of Indian cinema.

The 79-year-old, who was presented the award by President Droupadi Murmu, said she is grateful to receive the prestigious award a day before her 80th birthday.

"This is the best honour I could get from the Government of India. I would like to thank the jury for the recognition that they have bestowed upon me, my long journey and fulfilling the journey in the film industry," said Parekh, who is the recipient of the award for the year 2020.
Parekh, whose stardom was at par with male contemporaries Rajesh Khanna, Rajendra Kumar and Manoj Kumar in the 1960s-1970s, started her acting career at the age of 10 with the 1952 film 'Aasmaan'.

This year, the winners were picked from 305 feature films in 30 languages, and 148 non-feature films in 28 languages that were received as entries. For the Best Writing in Cinema Award, 24 books and 5 film critics competed for the title.