72nd National Film Awards | ‘Raayan,’ ‘Amaran’ bag top honours; ‘Meiyazhagan’ and ‘Maharaja’ miss marquee categories

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‘Amaran’ got music composer GV Prakash Kumar his third National Award, while actor Dhanush’s performance in the period actioner ‘Captain Miller’ got him a Special Mention

Updated - July 22, 2026 04:50 pm IST

Stills from ‘Raayan’ and ‘Amaran’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The 72nd National Film Awards, which honoured films that received certification from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) during the 2024 calendar year, were announced today, July 18, 2026. The evening saw many Tamil films, actors and technicians bag top honours.

The evening saw actor-director Dhanush’s film Raayanwin the Best Tamil Film award. Produced by Sun Pictures and directed by Dhanush, the neo-noir revenge drama set in Chennai also featured SJ Suryah, Sundeep Kishan, Dushara Vijayan, and Kalidas Jayaram. Meanwhile, Dhanush himself got a Special Mention for his performance in his period actioner Captain Miller. Interestingly, the Arun Matheswaran directorial also won the award for Best Film Promoting National, Social, Environmental Values.

Amaran, one of the biggest hits of 2024, bagged multiple awards at the 72nd National Film Awards. Filmmaker Rajkumar Periasamy bagged the Best Direction award, while R Kalaivannan won the top honour for his editing. The film also got music composer GV Prakash Kumar his third National Film Award (an award he shares with Hindi composer Shaswat Sachdeva, who won it for Article 370). Amaran starred Sivakarthikeyan as the real-life hero Major Mukund Varadarajan and Sai Pallavi as Mukund’s wife, Indhu Rebecca Varghese. The film told the life story of Mukund, an officer of the Indian Army’s Rajput Regiment, who was martyred during a counter-terrorism operation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Unfortunately, Tamil films that were expected to perform well at the National Awards, like Meiyazhagan, Vaazhai, Kottukkaali, Thangalaan, and Maharaja, failed to bag the top awards. Meiyazhagan, widely considered to be one of the best Tamil films to come out this decade, got sound designer Suren G a Special Mention. Meanwhile, action choreographer Anal Arasu won the Best Action Choreography award for Maharaja, while Sachana Namidass won the Best Actor in a Supporting Role for her stirring performance as Jothi in the Vijay Sethupathi-starrer. Sachana shares her award with Kannada actor Ropashree Varkady, who won it for Mithya.

Under the non-feature film categories, TS Hari Hara Sudhan won award for Best Sound Design for the film Blue.

The 72nd National Film Awards aims to recognise excellence in feature films, non-feature films and writing on cinema across Indian languages

Published - July 18, 2026 08:16 pm IST

Tamil cinema / Indian cinema / cinema / entertainment (general) / entertainment award / award and prize

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