Vice President Venkaiah Naidu To Give Away 2019 National Awards, Dadasaheb Phalke Honour To Amitabh Bachchan

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu will present the National Film Awards to the winners on Monday, 23rd, December at Vigyan Bhawan. Megastar Amitabh Bachchan will also receive the Dadasaheb Phalke award for his contribution to cinema. Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar will be attending the ceremony, a press release said.

Traditionally, the National Awards are handed out to the winners by the President of India but this time will be given away by the Vice President. According to sources, President Ram Nath Kovind will host high tea for the winners later.

In 2018, President Kovind had presented only a handful few set of awards during the ceremony which was divided into two phases. The first set of awards were conferred by Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, while the President presented the second lot.

The winners of 66th National Film Awards were announced in August this year with Gujarati film "Hellaro" bagging the Best Film honour. Vicky Kaushal and Ayushmann Khuranna jointly won the Best Actor trophy for their performances in "Uri:

The Surgical Strike" and "Andhadhun", respectively. Keerthy Suresh won the Best Actress award for her role in Telugu movie "Mahanati". Aditya Dhar of "Uri" won the Best Director award. 

National Film Awards are made by an independent and impartial jury consisting of eminent film makers and film personalities.

The results of the 66th National Award was delayed due to the Lok Sabha elections in the month of April and May. Prakash Javadekar told PTI, “They made a lot of efforts for the last two months. I am very sure that they would have picked the best films, the best directors. They will announce that at the press conference today. This is 66th year of film awards and they have become a prestigious institute.”