The National Film Awards Leave Delhi for a Tourist Stage

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on September 22, 2026 that the National Film Awards will now travel to major tourist spots. President Droupadi Murmu will present the 72nd edition at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat, beside the 182-metre Statue of Unity. Doordarshan National will telecast the 75-minute show from 2:30 pm IST.

The winners were named on July 18. Ninety-two artists collect their honours on a temporary riverside stage, 66 days later, under a monument built for visitors.

Union Minister Ties the Awards to Tourist Sites

Vaishnaw, speaking in Gujarat on the morning of the ceremony, did not describe Ekta Nagar as a film city. He described it as a stop on a new circuit. Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, a task has been taken up to take the National Film Awards to the country’s big tourist spots.

If we hold it at a tourist destination, naturally, the tourism destination will also benefit and a new format of the National Film Awards will be presented to everyone.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister, speaking in Gujarat on September 22, 2026

He asked every state to nominate the tourist site it values most, and to say what upgrades it will make if selected. Win that bid, and the next National Film Awards land there. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry had already said on September 8 that it would awards in various parts of the country, beyond the national capital, in the spirit of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat.

PIB India’s own notice framed the night as a celebration to different states and cities. The minister’s briefing made the missing noun plain. The destination is the point of the move, and cinema is the draw that fills it.

The Dome Beside Patel’s Statue

Ekta Nagar, formerly Kevadia, sits on the Narmada in Gujarat’s Narmada district. The statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel opened in 2018 and is billed as the world’s tallest. The awards night is being put up in the bus-bay zone of that complex, not in a studio or a standing auditorium.

THE KEVADIA STAGE

• The hall: A German aluminium-structure dome and a pandal have been raised for the night.
• The seats: Organisers have planned for nearly 1,000 dignitaries and guests.
• The clock: The programme is billed at 75 minutes, with Doordarshan National on air from 2:30 pm IST.
• The hosts: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Gujarat government are putting on the event together.

Guests are being served Gujarati food. A lighting show has already been run on the statue. Kartik Aaryan reached Kevadia on September 21 and was received with drums and a garba set. The Statue of Unity’s own account posted Malayalam star Mammootty on the same ground, as if the awards were another attraction on the campus map.

That campus keeps adding paid experiences around the monument. Gujarat has also cleared a 600-passenger cruise on the Narmada to sit beside an older 200-passenger boat, with a dining deck and a small stage for hire. The film honours are arriving in a town built to hold crowds, weddings and evening shows.

Watch the telecast on DD National and its YouTube channel.

A spectacular glow in Ekta Nagar!

As the 72nd National Film Awards bring the finest of Indian cinema together in Gujarat, the iconic Statue of Unity lit up the evening with a dazzling lighting show, adding to the grandeur of this special celebration.

Watch the 72nd National… pic.twitter.com/tPESztexh2

— Doordarshan National दूरदर्शन नेशनल (@DDNational) September 22, 2026

President Murmu reached Vadodara on September 21 and travelled to Kevadia by road as part of a three-day Gujarat visit through September 23. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel is among the political guests listed for the hall.

Chennai Hosted the Same Exit in 1970

The line that this is the first National Film Awards night outside Delhi does not hold. Gujarat is hosting for the first time. Delhi has not had a monopoly for 72 years.

The awards were instituted in 1954 and first presented in New Delhi. Most later editions settled at Vigyan Bhawan. The documented break came with the 17th National Film Awards, which honoured 1969 films and were presented on November 21, 1970 at the University Centenary Auditorium in Chennai. Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome took the President’s Gold Medal for Best Feature Film. Chennai was then a working film centre with its own regional jury, alongside Bombay and Calcutta. The government never published a reason for that shift.

FROM NEW DELHI TO THE NARMADA

1. 1954: The National Film Awards are instituted and first presented in New Delhi.
2. November 21, 1970: The 17th edition is presented in Chennai at the University Centenary Auditorium.
3. July 18, 2026: Juries chaired by Jayaraj, Aseem Sinha and A. Chandrasekhar name the 72nd winners in New Delhi, for films certified in 2024.
4. September 8, 2026: The ministry says future editions will rotate across states and cities, with Ekta Nagar as the first stop under that brief.
5. September 16, 2026: Anant Nag is named for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024.
6. September 22, 2026: President Murmu presents the honours beside the Statue of Unity.

The 1970 night went to a film city. The 2026 night goes to a statue built for footfall. That is the change of use, even if the geography of “not Delhi” has a precedent.

Why Skip Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad?

Filmmaker Rahul Dholakia, who won a National Award for Parzania, put the objection in one line on September 8. “I have no particular love lost for Delhi hosting the National Film Awards, but I question the shift to Gujarat. Why Gujarat?” He asked why the honour, if it had to leave the capital, did not go to Maharashtra, Kerala or Tamil Nadu, or even Hyderabad, places that still run large film industries. Gujarati cinema’s own centre is Ahmedabad, not the Narmada bus bay.

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, at a press conference the same day, said the Centre was trying to “create a wall” between Gujarat and the rest of the country, and asked why a national event could not sit in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru or other state capitals. Party MP Sanjay Raut called the night a Vibrant Gujarat event, claimed it was being moved ahead of Gujarat polls, and told artists not to go. “Any artist proud of their country will refuse the award,” he said.

They went. Mammootty, Kartik Aaryan and playback singer Abhay Jodhpurkar were already in Ekta Nagar before the President’s motorcade. The boycott stayed a speech. The guest list still looks like a film awards night. The argument that remains is the one Dholakia asked, and the one Vaishnaw answered without naming him. The next host is being chosen as a landmark, not as a studio town.

Article 370 Leads a Split-Screen Winners’ Night

The 72nd National Film Awards cover films certified by the Central Board of Film Certification between January 1 and December 31, 2024. Feature film jury chair Jayaraj announced the list in New Delhi on Saturday, July 18. Best Feature Film is Article 370, produced by Jio Studios and B62 Studios and directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale. The Swarna Kamal and Rs 3 lakh go to the producer and to the director each.

Yami Gautam wins Best Actress in a Leading Role for the same film. Mammootty, for the Malayalam film Bramayugam, shares Best Actor in a Leading Role with Kartik Aaryan for the Hindi film Chandu Champion. Tamil war drama Amaran gives Rajkumar Periasamy Best Direction. Randeep Hooda wins Best Debut Film of a Director for Swatantrya Veer Savarkar.

KEY AWARDS FOR 2024 FILMS

Sanjay Mishra wins Best Supporting Actor for Bhakshak. Sachana Namidass (Maharaja) and Ropashree Varkady (Mithya) share Best Supporting Actress. Captain Miller is named Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values. Srikanth is Best Hindi Film. Feminichi Fathima is Best Malayalam Film. Maran is Best Gujarati Film. Pushpa: The Rule Part-02 takes original screenplay (Sukumar) among other crafts, and Stree 2 is among the popular titles also on the honours sheet. A Santhali film is honoured in the non-feature section for the first time.

One non-feature craft award lands on the same ground as the statue it depicts. Aanand L. Rai’s Statue of Unity, Ekta Ka Prateek won Best Direction in that section. The director collects that prize in the town the film is about, in a hall built for the monument’s visitors.

Anant Nag Receives the Phalke Award in Gujarat

The government on September 16 named Kannada actor Anant Nag for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024. President Murmu will confer it at Ekta Nagar. Nag, born on September 4, 1948, is 78. The citation runs to more than five decades and more than 300 films in Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil and Marathi.

He made his Kannada debut in Sankalp and his Hindi debut in Shyam Benegal’s Ankur. He later appeared in Malgudi Days, the television series directed by his brother Shankar Nag. The ministry lists five Filmfare Awards and five Karnataka State Best Actor Awards, plus time as a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council and, from 1994 to 1999, as a legislator who served as minister of state for Bangalore City Development. In 2023 he marked 50 years in cinema.

The highest individual honour in Indian film therefore goes to a Kannada career on a Gujarat tourist campus. The Phalke night is still a film story. The room it is read in is a tourism story.

States Must Nominate a Landmark for the Next Night

Vaishnaw’s request to the states is the rule that follows this edition. He did not ask for a studio lot or a state film institute. He asked for a landmark, and for a list of works the host will finish if chosen.

WHAT THE NEXT HOST MUST SEND

• The site: Each state is asked to nominate the tourist destination it considers most important.
• The works: The bid should say what improvements the state will make at that site.
• The prize: If the site is picked, the next National Film Awards are held there.

The 92 winners walk into a dome by the Narmada on September 22, collect the lotuses already assigned on July 18, and leave. The format they just used is the thing the Centre is putting on the road.