New Delhi (PTI): Malayalam film "Aattam: The Play" won the award for best feature film and Sooraj R Barjatya was judged best director for the Hindi movie "Uunchai" in the National Film Awards announced on Friday.

The best actress award was shared by Nithya Menon, who got it for the Tamil film 'Thiruchitrambalam', and Manasi Parekh for the Gujarati movie "Kutch Express". The award for best actor went to Rishabh Shetty for the Kannada hit "Kantara".

Neena Gupta was best supporting actress for 'Uunchai' and Pawan Malhotra best supporting actor for the Haryanvi film "Fouja".

Sharmila Tagore and Manoj Bajpayee starrer "Gulmohar" won the award for Hindi film. Bajpayee also got a special mention.

A R Rahman won the National Film Award for best music director (background music) for his work in Mani Ratnam's "Ponnyin Selvan-Part 1", which was also named the best Tamil film. Pritam got the award for best music director (songs) for "Brahmastra-Part 1".

The awards were announced by feature film jury head Rahul Rawail.

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New Delhi, Oct 24: The sports ministry on Thursday announced the discontinuation of the Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement from this year onwards and the introduction of the Arjuna Award Lifetime in its place in a bid to "rationalise" the various sporting honours of the country.

Instituted in 2002, the Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award, named after hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand, is given to individuals in disciplines that are part of the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, among others.

In 2023, the award was given to former shuttler Manjusha Kanwar, ex-hockey exponent Vineet Kumar and kabaddi player Kavitha Selvaraj.

"The various schemes for sports awards have been rationalised wherein Arjuna Award (Lifetime) has been introduced in place of Dhyan Chand Award. To recognise the efforts of coaches at grassroots/development level, they are now eligible for the Dronacharya Award," said a ministry statement.

"The Arjuna Award (Lifetime) has been introduced and will be given for life time contribution to sports development.

"Further, to recognize the Khelo India scheme, the Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy will be given to the University for Overall Top Performance in Khelo India University Games," it added.

The last date for applying for the national sports awards for 2024 is November 14.