Paresh Rawal Defends National Film Awards Move To Gujarat

Paresh Rawal Defends National Film Awards Shift To Gujarat

The actor pushed back at critics of the move to Kevadia, asking why a national ceremony can't rotate beyond Delhi for once.

By Call Sheet15 Sept 20262 min read

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Paresh Rawal isn't having the criticism. Asked about the 72nd National Film Awards moving out of Delhi for the first time in decades and landing instead in Kevadia, Gujarat, the actor didn't hold back. "Is Gujarat in Bangladesh or Pakistan? It is also a part of our own country. Why shouldn't this event be held in Gujarat?" he told ANI. "Events should be held in Gujarat too... I say such events should take place in every state. There is nothing wrong with that."

The ceremony is scheduled for September 22 at Ekta Nagar, and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has framed the relocation as a deliberate policy shift, one meant to take India's biggest film honours out of the capital and spread them across the country over time. Whether Gujarat becomes a recurring host or a one-off remains unclear, and that's exactly the part fuelling the online chatter about a possible "Make in Gujarat" pattern to future government-backed cultural events.

Rawal isn't wrong that the awards themselves have never been shy about their national spread. Instituted back in 1954, the National Film Awards have long tried to represent Indian cinema well beyond Hindi and Bollywood, and this year's list keeps that going. Mammootty and Kartik Aaryan share the Best Actor trophy, for Bramayugam and Chandu Champion respectively, a split verdict rather than the usual single winner. Yami Gautam picks up Best Actress for Article 370, which also takes Best Feature Film honours. Randeep Hooda gets the Best Debut Director nod for Swatantrya Veer Savarkar.

Further down the list, Bhangaar has been named Best Non-Feature Film, and Ram-Nami wins Best Documentary. A Santhali film gets recognised in the non-feature category for the first time, alongside entries from Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Tulu and Garhwali cinema. Big commercial titles from the year, including Kalki 2898 AD, Amaran, Pushpa: The Rule Part 2, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Stree 2, all show up across various technical and craft categories too.

So the controversy, such as it is, sits entirely on geography rather than on who's won what. Nobody's disputing the winners. It's the venue that's split opinion, and Rawal has now put his weight behind the government's line that a national ceremony doesn't have to mean a Delhi ceremony.

September 22 will tell us how the room actually reacts, and whether this is a genuine rotation policy or a one-time experiment nobody quite commits to repeating.