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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Srinagar (PTI): Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday criticised his Bihar counterpart over the niqab incident and said that Nitish Kumar might be slowly revealing his true nature.

"Nitish Kumar, who was once considered a secular leader, may be slowly showing his true colours," Abdullah told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.

Abdullah said Kumar removing the face veil of a Muslim woman doctor was wrong and cannot be justified by any means.

"We have seen this kind of incident here several years ago. Have you forgotten how Mehbooba Mufti removed the burqa of a legitimate voter inside a polling station? That act was wrong, and this act (of Kumar) is also wrong.

"If the (Bihar) chief minister did not want to hand over the order to her (Muslim woman), they could have kept her aside. However, to humiliate her like this is totally wrong," the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.

Kumar stirred a huge controversy after he removed the face veil of a Muslim woman at a function earlier this week.