43rd National Film Awards

The 43rd National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1995. Ceremony took place on 6 August 1996 and awards were given by then President of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma.

Awards
Awards were divided into feature films, non-feature films and books written on Indian cinema.

Feature films
Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 43rd National Film Awards, a Malayalam film, Kathapurushan won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film whereas a Malayalam film, Kaalapani won the maximum number of awards (4). Following were the awards given in each category:

Juries
A committee headed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee was appointed to evaluate the feature films awards. Following were the jury members:


 * Jury Members
 * Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Chairperson) • Kiran Shantaram • K. G. George • Gautam Bora • M. Prabhakar Reddy • R. Lakshman • Mahendran • Deepti Naval • Narayan Chakraborty • P. A. Saleem • Hari Kumar • Sarat Pujari • Ashok Kumar • Sanjay Chatterjee • K. Ibohal Sharma • P. B. Sreenivas

All India Award
Following were the awards given:

Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna Kamal

All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

Silver Lotus Award
Official Name: Rajat Kamal

All the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

Regional Awards
The award is given to best film in the regional languages in India.

Best Feature Film in Each of the Language Other Than Those Specified in the Schedule VIII of the Constitution

Non-Feature Films
Short Films made in any Indian language and certified by the Central Board of Film Certification as a documentary/newsreel/fiction are eligible for non-feature film section.

Juries
A committee headed by Vijaya Mulay was appointed to evaluate the non-feature films awards. Following were the jury members:


 * Jury Members
 * Vijaya Mulay (Chairperson) • Kulanda Kumar Bhattacharya • Naresh Bedi • Pradeep Biswas • M. V. Krishnaswamy

Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna Kamal

All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

Silver Lotus Award
Official Name: Rajat Kamal

All the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)' and cash prize.

Best Writing on Cinema
The awards aim at encouraging study and appreciation of cinema as an art form and dissemination of information and critical appreciation of this art-form through publication of books, articles, reviews etc.

Juries
A committee headed by Aruna Vasudev was appointed to evaluate the writing on Indian cinema. Following were the jury members:


 * Jury Members
 * Aruna Vasudev (Chairperson) • Vinod Tiwari • Rangarajan (Sujata)

Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna Kamal

All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)' and cash prize.

Special Mention
All the award winners are awarded with Certificate of Merit.

Awards not given
Following were the awards not given as no film was found to be suitable for the award:


 * Best Feature Film in Punjabi
 * Best Non-Feature Film Direction
 * Best Promotional Film
 * Best Exploration / Adventure Film