The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) has dropped the names of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and late actor Nargis Dutt from the National Film Awards.
The ‘Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a director’ will now be simply called ‘Best Debut Film of a Director’.
Indira’s name became associated with the award during the 28th National Film Awards, 1980.
The ‘Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration’ has become the ‘Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values’.
Nargis’s name came to be associated with the National Film Awards in 1965, during the 13th edition of the awards, for best feature film category.
TheNational films awards were first presented in 1954 by the Government of India.
It aims “to honour films made across India, on a national scale, to encourage the furthering of Indian art and culture”.