President Droupadi Murmu presented the 72nd National Film Awards at Ekta Nagar in Narmada district on Tuesday, 22 September, and two of the honours had a Gujarat connection. Maaran, directed by Abhishek Jain, won Best Gujarati Film, according to Onmanorama and the full winners list carried by Gulf News. Aanand L Rai took Best Direction in the non-feature section for Statue of Unity: Ekta Ka Prateek, a documentary about the monument that stood behind the stage.
The national headlines went elsewhere. Article 370 won Best Feature Film, Yami Gautam won Best Actress for it, and Mammootty (Bramayugam) and Kartik Aaryan (Chandu Champion) shared Best Actor. Kannada actor Anant Nag received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024.
A Gujarati filmmaker with a track record
Abhishek Jain is often credited as one of the directors with pulling Gujarati cinema out of its long slump in the early 2010s, when urban, Ahmedabad-set comedies started drawing multiplex audiences who had stopped watching films in the language. A national award in the language category gives his new film a festival and OTT calling card that Gujarati releases rarely carry outside the state.
The documentary award sits differently. A film about the Statue of Unity winning at the Statue of Unity will read to some viewers as a home-ground result. The jury’s reasons have not been published in detail, and nothing in the reporting suggests the category was contested on those grounds.
The state’s sales pitch
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel used the occasion to ask producers to shoot in Gujarat, naming the White Rann of Kutch, Gir, Girnar, Saputara, the Harappan sites of Dholavira and Lothal, and a coastline of more than 2,300 km, IANS reported. He said the government wants post-production, animation, VFX and gaming work in the state as well, so that young people can do this work without leaving their own cities and villages. He cited RRR, Kai Po Che! and Satyaprem Ki Katha among productions that used Gujarat locations.
The instrument behind that pitch is the Cinematic Tourism Policy 2022-27, which offers financial incentives for feature films, documentaries, web and TV series, and for film infrastructure such as studios and post-production units. The policy runs out in 2027, so the state will have to decide within about a year whether to renew it, and on what terms.
What the night showed about Ekta Nagar
When we reported the venue change earlier this month, the open question was whether Ekta Nagar could handle an event of this size. It managed, with help. The Hollywood Reporter India reported that organisers built a temporary hall in the bus bay area using an imported aluminium dome, and that the ceremony ran about 75 minutes. The same publication noted the last time the awards left Delhi was 1970, in Chennai, and that the government has not formally explained the move beyond Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s remark about taking the awards to major tourist spots.
For Narmada district, a borrowed dome in a bus bay tells you the town still has no permanent hall for national events. If the state wants conferences and film units to stay longer, a venue of that kind is the obvious gap.
What to watch
- Where the 73rd awards go. The ministry has said future editions will move between states, so Ekta Nagar’s claim to a repeat is weak.
- Whether Maaran gets a wider or re-release on the strength of the award.
- The terms of any successor to the 2022-27 film policy, especially whether it adds support for post-production and VFX studios, which the Chief Minister singled out.
Sources: Onmanorama, Gulf News, The Hollywood Reporter India, PIB, IANS, CMO Gujarat
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.