Premium69th National Film Awards: Here's when, where you can live stream announcement event
The buzz is director SS Rajamouli's global hit RRR is expected to add another feather to his cap by winning some top awards at the 69th National Film Awards.
Last Updated: 01.46 PM, Aug 24, 2023
The winners of the 69th National Film Awards will be announced on Thursday. This is India's most coveted award ceremony and it celebrates the best of the extremely diverse and vibrant movies of India. It was constituted in 1954, and the awards are distributed by the Government of India’s Directorate of Film Festivals. The award ceremony was interrupted for two years owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The government resumed the event last year considering movies released in 2020, across several categories.
This year, the jury has considered movies that were censored in 2021. The announcement of winners will begin at 5PM on August 24. People can watch the event live on PIB's social media pages, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
RRR is in the competition
And the buzz is director SS Rajamouli's global hit RRR is expected to add another feather to his cap by winning some top awards at the 69th National Film Awards. Even though the movie was only released in March 2022, it completed its censorship formalities in December 2021. Initially, the movie was planned for a wide release in January 2022 during the Sankranti festival. However, the release was postponed owing to the growing threat of the third wave of Covid infections.
As the cases of Covid infections began to drop after a few weeks, the producers released R in March 2022, without much further delay. The movie received a rousing reception at the box office and lifted the Covid-induced gloom. Starring Telugu superstars Jr NTR and Ram Charan in the lead roles, RRR is set against the backdrop of colonial India. The movie exploits a blind spot in history and modelled its protagonist based on real-life freedom fighters, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Jr NTR).
RRR created history after its dance anthem Naatu Naatu bagged the Oscars earlier this year.
Will it also win big at the National Film Awards?