2019 National Awards: VP to confer awards; ceremony date out

The annual National Film Awards ceremony will be held at Vigyan Bhawan on Monday. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu will present the awards to the winners on December 23.

New Delhi: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu will present the National Film Award to the winners on Monday.

The annual National Film Awards ceremony will be held at Vigyan Bhawan where megastar Amitabh Bachchan will also receive the Dadasaheb Phalke award.

Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar will be attending the ceremony, a press release said.

Traditionally, the National Awards are handed out to the winners by the President of India. According to sources, President Ram Nath Kovind will host high tea for the winners later.

In 2018, President Kovind had presented only a handful few set of awards during the ceremony which was divided into two phases.

The first set of awards were conferred by Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, while the President presented the second lot.

The winners of 66th National Film Awards were announced in August this year with Gujarati film Hellaro bagging the Best Film honour.

Vicky Kaushal and Ayushmann Khuranna jointly won the Best Actor trophy for their performances in Uri: The Surgical Strike and Andhadhun, respectively.

Keerthy Suresh won the Best Actress award for her role in Telugu movie Mahanati.

Aditya Dhar of Uri won the Best Director award.

With inputs from PTI