National Film Awards leave Delhi for the Statue of Unity on 22 September

The 72nd National Film Awards will be presented on 22 September at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat's Narmada district, beside the 597-foot Statue of Unity. It is the first time in 72 years that the ceremony has left Delhi. President Droupadi Murmu will hand the medals to 92 winners. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry announced the winners in July. They cover films released in 2024.

Article 370 won Best Feature Film. Yami Gautam won Best Actress for the same film. Mammootty and Kartik Aaryan share Best Actor for Bramayugam and Chandu Champion. Randeep Hooda won Best Debut Director for Swatantrya Veer Savarkar. Kalki 2898 AD takes Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Captain Miller, Arun Matheswaran's Tamil film with Dhanush, won Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values. Aanand L. Rai already holds a non-feature Best Direction citation for Statue of Unity – Ekta ka Prateek, which is how the venue and the prize list now occupy the same sentence.

The Narmada district administration said on Monday that a German aluminium structural dome will be built in the bus-bay area of the statue complex. The tent will seat the President, the winners and about 1,000 guests. Most previous editions were held at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi, starting with the first National Awards in 1954. Kevadia was renamed Ekta Nagar after the statue opened in 2018. The town now adds a red carpet to a tourist calendar built on the monument and the river.

Moving a national honours night is a logistics decision and a political one. Gujarat gets a camera angle that Delhi's auditorium cannot match. The film industry gets a longer trip and a shorter list of nearby hotels. Winners in Malayalam, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil will share a stage that sits in a district better known for hydropower and statue selfies than for preview theatres.

The prize list itself is the 2024 year in official taste. A Kashmir political thriller at the top. A split best-actor award that puts a Malayalam horror-myth and a Hindi sports biopic on the same line. A Savarkar biopic for a debut director. A Telugu science-fiction epic in the popular category. That mix will be argued in trade papers until 22 September. The venue argument is already over. The dome goes up in the bus bay.

What remains is weather, security for a presidential visit, and whether a temporary hall at the foot of a 182-metre statue can run a broadcast without the wind taking the sound. District officials have a fortnight. The winners have their citations. Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan, for one night, does not.