Hindi Awards 32nd National Film Awards - Cast & Crew

As popularly known, The Nightingale of South, S. Janaki was born as Sishtla Sreeramamurthy on 23rd April 1938 in Repalle, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Her childhood love for music turned out to be her talent, and she started performing at a tender age of three. Her voice is compared to Lata Mangeshkar, and Janaki has a large fan following because of her mesmerising voice that can connect your soul to any song. She learnt music from Sree Paidiswamy, who was a nadaswaram teacher. When Janaki was 20 years of age, her uncle Dr Chandrasekhar advised her to move to Chennai and join AVM studios. Her voice got recognition as a playback singer in Tamil films. Her debut as a playback singer was a Tamil flick, Vidhiyin Vilayattu (1957). She has sung over 40,000 songs in various languages.

Rohini Hattangadi is an Indian actress who can be called as a veteran in the true sense of the term. She is a very senior actress, who debuted with the movie called ‘Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan’ in 1978. She has an experience of around 35 years and she has been widely appreciated and critically perceived very well by the audiences and critics respectively. Some of her noted works are popular movies such as ‘Arth’ (1982), ‘Saaransh’ (1984) & ‘Gandhi’ (1982). She won a lot of recognition for her role of Kastoorba Gandhi in Sir Richard Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’ (1982), which was a critical success and it won an Academy Award for the best film category. Rohini won the BAFTA Award for her role in this movie.

Shabana Azmi is a film actress of Indian origin and social activist. Shabana was born on 18, September 1950 in Hyderabad. Her father, Kaifi Azmi was an Indian poet while her mother Shaukat Azmi was a stage actress for the Indian People’s Theatre Asociation.

Sonia is an Indian film actress popular in South Indian movies, mainly in Malayalam. She had her debut in movies as a child artist in 1979, at the age of three, in the Malayalam film Ival Oru Naadodi. She appeared in many films as a child actor by the name Baby Sonia. During her childhood she has dubbed for many child artists, including Baby Shalini. She won the National award and Kerala state award for Best child artist. She also acted in Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu movies.

Abhishek Dudhaiya is an India Television and film industry director, writer and producer. He has worked in almost 20 TV shows for Zee TV, &TV and DD National. He is also known as Mukesh Dudhaiya.

Anil Malnad is a film editor. He was born in Malnad, Chikkamagaluru, and India. He mainly works with the Kannada, Tamil and Telugu Cinema. He has Indian Nationality. His star sign is Scorpio. He did films projects of different genres. He has done the best editing. He gave his best assistant at the time of his editing career. Anil has well versed with the editing part of the films. Anil has started his film career as an assistant director with the project Sampoorna Ramayanam in the year 1971. Sampoorna Ramayanam is eth film of Indian director Bapu. After that Anil did his debut project as an editor with the venture Vamsa Vruksham. This is also Bapu's direction. Apart from the Tamil industry, he did movies in some other languages too.

Master Suresh is a South Indian actor. He did most of his movies in South Indian languages like Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu. Though he has not acted in the lead role in any film most of his films have been great hits.

Jaidev is a talented music composer in Bollywood. Hum Dono, Prem Parbhat, Reshma and Shera are some of his notable works. He gained the National Award for Ankahee, Gaman and Reshma Aur Shera. Born in Nairobi and grown in Ludhiana, Jaidev acted in few films as a child artiste. Due to unfortunate circumstances he had to quit acting. Jaidev has the credit of being the first music director to win 3 national awards. Joru Ka Bhai and Anjali made him famous as a music director. He had the distinct efficiency to mix folk music and conventional music into Hindi film scenarios.

Rajam Balachander (1956-2014) was an Indian film producer, popular amongst the audience for her work in movies like Duet (1994), Roja (1992), Kalyana Agathigal (1985), etc. Mostly known for her predominant involvement in Kollywood movies, dramas, and TV shows, she was one of the key figures behind the establishment of Kavithalaaya productions.

V. Natarajan is also known as Pyramid Natarajan is a well-known Tamil film actor cum producer who has been working in the Tamil show business industry for four decades now as an actor, producer, content creator, and film distributor. He has acted in over ten movies and has been the member of the Government Body formed to deal with Film Industry and has also been an Advisory Committee Member on Film Taxation as well as been the Examining Committee Member of Central Board of Film Certification for the full tenure of 3 years during the 90s.

Born into a family in Kerala, Adoor Gopalakrishnan started doing amateur plays at a young age. Later, he wrote and helmed few plays. His interest in this field was imbibed in him by his family. He had studied Economics, Political Science and Public Administration at Gandhigram Rural University in 1961. Then he studied screenwriting and filmmaking at the Pune Film Institute. His debut film was Swayamvaram, which became a milestone in the history of the Malayalam cinema. The film won four National Awards including Best Script, Best Film, Best Actress and Best Director. His third film Elippathayam fetched him the British Film Institute Award for Most Original and Imaginative Film in 1982. The International Film Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) was offered to him six times with great honour. For his work in Indian Cinema, he was honoured with India’s 4th highest civilian award Padma Shri. He also has a collection of beautifully written essays, which have also won him awards and accolades.

Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi was born on 4th February 1922, in Ron Karnataka India, to parents Gururaj Joshi ( his father authored the Kannada to English dictionary) and Godavaribai (she was a home maker). He was the eldest among his sixteen siblings. Bhimsen lost his mother at a very young age and was raised by a step mother. Bhimsen had an attraction towards musical instruments like harmonium and tanpura. He would often follow processions that’d be accompanied by Bands. In the process he’d get so tired that he’d sleep somewhere on his way home. His parents would search for him and report to the police.

He is a well-known producer of the Tollywood film Industry. He has his productions named ‘Poornodaya Movie Creations’ and through this production house, he had produced several blockbusters in the Tollywood which include ‘Sankarabharanam’ and ‘Swayam Krushi’. These movies also appeared at the Moscow Film Festival. He was born on 24th of April in the year 1934 in Kothapeta located in East Godavari district. His father is Sattiraju Naidu, and he was born in a Naidu family. He had produced the old movies that belonged to the 1970’s or 1980’s. His several films received many awards and were also shown in the International Film Festivals, and some of them were even dubbed in the other languages like Russian. Initially, he was an actor and then slowly converted into a producer. When he retired from producing any more films he was given the position of a secretary in the Telugu Film Producer’s Council. He also worked as a chairman for the ‘Nandi Awards’ and also as a member of ‘National Film Award’. He had produced several blockbusters in the Tollywood film industry. In the year 1992, he had produced the movie named ‘Aapadbandhavudu’ directed by the famous director named K.Vishwanath and starring Chiranjeevi, a very renowned actor in the Tollywood and Meenakshi Seshadri, who is a well-known actress in the Tollywood film industry.

A legendary director who has created the most exceptional of films for more than decades, Tarun Majumdar is the most respected personality in the Indian film industry. He was born in Bengal, in the year 1931. This renowned directed is especially noted for his sharp representation of the Bengali culture and society. He has directed many hit films, many of which are based on classical literary works of Bimal Kar, Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay and Tarashankar Bandopadhyay. He has successfully recreated their works to the big screen, which has been acclaimed by the critics as well as the audience. A film becomes a full- fledged entertainer when it also has a combination of a good plot and great music or soundtrack. One major quality of Majumdar’s films is the addition of Rabindranath Tagore’s songs which brings about a wide range of emotions to the films. In his early days, Majumdar was credited as Yatrik.

Biographies reveal bare details about the maverick filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Even today not much is known about this extraordinary filmmaker. But people still have a passion for doing research upon his classic films as he is an extraordinary filmmaker. Satyajit Ray was India’s first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award (Honorary Oscar) in 1992. He is also a recipient of the honorary doctorate by Oxford University ( after actor Chaplin). The government of India has awarded him ‘Padma Bhushan(1965) and  Dadasaheb Phalke Award(1985) and the highest civilian honour’Bharat Ratna’(1992) too. In 1992, he was even posthumously awarded the Akira Kurosawa Award for Lifetime Achievement in directing at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The director was chosen once as No 7 in the list of list of "Top 10 Directors" of the world. 

Gautam Ghose is a special man. He has won numerous awards, and his work has been appreciated across cultures and boundaries. He is the most celebrated Bengali Film Director. He is known for his films, and has won numerous National and International Awards for his performance. To say the least, he has won 16 National Awards and many Filmfare Awards. He remains the single Indian to have won the prestigious "Vittorio Di Sica” Award, in Italy.

Victor Banerjee was born 15 October 1946 in Calcutta, India, belongs to a Zamindar family of Kolkata and got his initial education from Kolkata and higher education from Dublin.

Prakash Jha, a director, film producer and screenwriter, was born on 27th of February 1952. ‘Prakash Jha Productions’ is his production venture. Hailing from Bihar, Prakash Jha went on to study B.Sc Honors in Ramjas College. Eventually he stopped studies and came to Mumbai, wanting to be a painter. As he was preparing for entrance exam for a course in painting, Prakash Jha watched the movie Dharma, and thus developed a passion for film making. The year 1973 saw him joining the Film And Television Institute of India, Pune, in order to study editing. But unfortunately the studio was shut down and thus Prakash returned to Mumbai and earned his living. Initially Prakash Jha was working on documentaries. 

Siddharth Kak is active in the Hindi Television world right from the year 1972 until the present. He got married to Gita, and the couple has a daughter namely Antara Kak. He is known for anchoring of TV shows, and he produced many serials. He plays a commendable job on the TV shows and serials. He hailed from Kashmir. His role in the making and anchoring of the show namely Surabhi was an absolute hit.

Shyam Benegal is a renowned Indian director and screenwriter. He created, what is today referred to as ‘middle cinema’. His work has widely received critical acclaim in India as well as in the International Film Circuit. He was born on 14 December 1934 in Secunderabad. He is a cousin of Guru Dutt. His paternal grandmother and Guru Dutt’s maternal grandmother were sisters. His career began in advertising in the year 1959. He was initially a copywriter. Over the years, he slowly rose to the position of a creative head. He directed over 900 advertisements before focusing his faculties on film-making. Benegal is known for films like Ankur, Nishant, Manthan and Bhumika, which were released in 1973, 1975, 1976 and 1977 respectively. His films and documentaries have been set in realistic contemporary scenarios and primarily revolve around topics like exploitation, rural empowerment, and social change. He has worked with actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil.

Saeed Akhtar Mirza is a screenwriter and director. He is known for Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai, which was released in 1980, then four years later another hit film- Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! in 1984, then Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro in 1989 and six years later Naseem in 1995, which grabbed two National Film Awards in 1996. He also directed television serials like Nukkad in 1986 and in 1988 Intezaar, which was a hit on television. He was born on 30th of June 1943 in Bombay. He decided to become a screenwriter and took to documentary filmmaking at the beginning of his career but later got into films with Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan in 1978, which was about the mental trauma a youth went through after he found himself struggling in the midst of feudal money culture. Then in 1980 followed his very acclaimed work Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai, which portrayed an angry youth who strived in search of his class and cultural origins. Both of these films won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie for the year.

Shankar Nag, most influential and talented Kannada actor and director, who acted in around 90 Kannada movies, in a career spanning 12 years from 1978 to 1990. Shankar also produced R.K. Narayan's novel, Malgudi Days as a teleserial and also acted in it. He was also a part a Kannada theater. He co-wrote 22 June 1897, an Indian national award-winning Marathi film. One of his films, Autoraja is appreciated by the audience to the level that even now his posters are there on auto rickshaws of Karnataka even after 25 years of his death. He was also focused towards social improvement as his films portrayed that. He was of friendly nature and loved by all. Shankar Nag was a versatile personality and has left his mark on the Kannada Film Industry in many ways. Nationally, he will be remembered for his famous work, Malgudi Days, which was well directed and telecasted along. Personal Life: Shankar Nagarkatte, better known as Shankar Nag, was born to a Brahmin family on November 9, 1954, to Sadanand and Anandi Nagarkatte. After finishing his studies, Shankar Nag lived in Mumbai for some time. During this period, he was involved in Marathi theater. Incidentally, it was at this time that he met his wife, Arundhati. On Sep 30 1990, while on his way to Dharwad for a film shoot, Shankar Nag died in a car accident. Career: After completing his education from Mumbai, Shankar returned to Karnataka. When Shankar Nag shifted back to Karnataka, he began to get involved in the Kannada Movie Industry. Anant Nag, Shankar’s elder brother, was already a famous actor and Shankar Nag was offered a role in the movie Ondanondu Kaladalli in 1978 (debut). This debut movie, which became a classic hit in Kannada, earned him a National Award at the Delhi International Film Festival.

Prathap Pothan is a famous South Indian Director, Actor, Writer and Producer who has acted in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi movies. He was born on 13 August 1955 in Trivandrum. His father was a well to do Businessman named Kolathinkal Pothan. His father passed away when he was 15 years old. He also has a elder brother whose name is Hari Pothan who has produced many movies. Prathap was put in a boarding school in Ooty at the age of 5. Initially he was interested in Painting. However, once he joined college, he started acting in plays with the help of his friends and gradually he was more interested in acting than painting. After his graduation in Madras Christian College (MCC), Prathap worked in a Mumbai ad agency as a copywriter, later he also worked at Sistas Ad Agency and Hindustan Thomson.

Naseeruddin Shah is an experimental actor and associated with theater. He had treated art-cinema as his serious endeavor requiring the dedication, discipline, and integrity. Throughout his career, he subjected his own acting to a process of rigorous artistic self-analysis and reflection. He was the discovery of filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who introduced actors like Shabana, Om Puri, Smita Patil and others in the Indian cinema. Undoubtedly, this actor has acted in some serious films such as Sparsh, Paar and Iqbal( three national awards). For his performance in Paar, he received the best actor in the Venice Film Festival. His growth even in art-cinema was slow, as he had acted in women-oriented films of Shabana Azmi or Smita Patil. Later, he was chosen to play lead roles in films of Sai Paranjpye’ Sparsh, where he played a blind character. Even in Gautam Ghosh’s Paar, he identified himself as village-man that fetched him an award at national and international level.

Kailasam Balachander or most popularly known as K. Balachander is a legendary film producer, director and screenwriter who dedicate his life in the film industry for almost half of his life. He was born on July 9, 1930 in a Tamil family in the Tanjore District of Nannilam, Madras Presidency, British India. He stated that, since his eight year, he’s been seeing cinema and as he recalls, he remembers that his interest and passion towards the cinema grew after he watched the films of the renowned Tamil actor and producer, M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. At 12, he has done theatre and drama, which subsequently helped him in developing his passion for writing, acting and directing. He studied Zoology at the Annamalai University and even until his graduation, his fondness towards theatre continues to grow as he regularly donned stage plays. After his graduation in year 1949, he initially worked as a teacher at Tiruvarur District in Muthupet. In year 1950, Balachander moved to Chennai (Madras before) and became an apprentice clerk in the office of the Accountant General. It was when he joined an amateur drama company called, United Amateur Artistes. Later, he created his own troupe and it was the time that he became popular for being an amateur writer as he wrote the ‘Major Chandrakanth’ in English language. But the range of the English language was very limited in Madras, so he re-wrote the story to Tamil language which turned out to be a major success. His troupe was composed of renowned Indian personalities such as Major Sundarrajan, Sreekanth, Nagesh and Sowcar Janaki who all works as an actor in India. He also produced and directed plays like Navagraham (Nine Planets, Server Sundaram (Waiter Sundaram), Naanal (Tall Grass), Neerkumizhi (Water Bubble) and more.