President Droupadi Murmu will confer the 69th National Film Awards 2023 today i.e. on 17 October at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. Actor Kriti Sanon and Alia Bhatt has jointly won the National Film Award in the Best Actress category while actor Allu Arjun is named best actor for his performance in Puspa. He has also has become the first Telugu star to bag the award in the history of National Film Awards. R Madhavan who turned director with "Rocketry: The Nambi Effect" has also bagged the national award for Best Feature Film while Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration will be conferred to The Kashmir Files.
Shoojit Sircar’s historical drama Sardar Udham also won several awards. Apart from being named the Best Hindi Film, it also bagged Best Cinematography (Avik Mukhopadhyay), Best Audiography (Sinoy Joseph), Best Production Design (Dmitrii Malich and Mansi Dhruv Mehta) and Best Costume Design (Veera Kapur Ee) awards.The Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur spoke highly of the President of India Draupadi Murmu and thanked her for honouring the winners of the 69th National Film Awards. He also thanked the Indian film industry for entertaining people even during the coronavirus pandemic. He also requested to not divide the film industry into regions.