National Film Award winners to get five times more

New Delhi, Feb 20 (UNI) The Government has increased fivefold the amount of the most prestigious National Film Awards, which will fetch Rs 10 lakh to the winner of the Dada Saheb Phalke Award given for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema.

The winner of the 'Swarna Kamal'(Golden Lotus) which is given for best feature film will now get Rs 250,000 instead of Rs 50,000 from this year. Similarly, the cash component for awards in other categories has also been enhanced five times, Directorate of Film Festival Neelam Kapur said here.

The announcement regarding increase in the cash component of the awards had been made by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi at the National Film Awards giving ceremony here last year.

Ms Kapur said the decision taken by the Minister has come into force and the winners of the 2006 National Film Awards would now get the enhanced amount.

In this connection, she said the process for next awards has been set into motion and the entries would be invited soon. The work will take at least two to three months.

In fact, the time schedule for the awards has been disrupted due to the long delay in announcing the 2005 awards, which were announced only last year. The delay had been caused by some legal cases against the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Some of the other categories in which the awards are given are the best actor, best actress, best popular film, best film on promoting national integration, best film of a director, best child artiste, best playback singer and special jury award.

The National Film Awards were instituted in 1954 and the next awards will be the 54th edition.

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