51st National Film Awards

The 51st 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 2003.

Awards were announced by the committee headed by Basu Chatterjee, Bhimsain and K. N. T. Sastry for the feature films, non-feature films and books written on Indian cinema, respectively, on 14 August 2004; whereas award ceremony took place on 3 February 2005 and awards were given away by then President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

With 51st National Film Awards, new category for Non-feature Film for Best Narration / Voice Over was introduced and awarded with 'Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus)'.

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 51st National Film Awards, a Marathi film, Shwaas won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film; whereas three Bengali films, Abar Aranye, Bhalo Theko and Chokher Bali, along with a Hindi film, Koi... Mil Gaya won the maximum number of awards (3). Following were the awards given in each category:

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


 * Jury Members
 * Basu Chatterjee (Chairperson) • Vijaya Nirmala • N. Krishnakumar (Unni) • Sumalatha • K. B. Tilak • Shailaja Bajpai • Virendra Saini
 * Madhu Jain • Rashmi Doraiswamy • Gayatri Chatterjee • Raj Datt • Makhonmani Mongsaba • Sher Choudhary • Mohan Kondajji
 * Alaya Kumar Mohanty • Jyoti Sarup • Nimmala Shankar

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 Bhim Sen was appointed to evaluate the non-feature films awards. Following were the jury members:


 * Jury Members
 * Bhim Sen (Chairperson) • Jose Sebastian • Satyabrata Kalita • Haimanti Banerjee • Rajiv Khandagle • N. S. Shankar • Anwar Jamal

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 K. N. T. Sastry was appointed to evaluate the writing on Indian cinema. Following were the jury members:


 * Jury Members
 * K. N. T. Sastry (Chairperson) • Kodalli Shivaram • Aruna Anant Damle

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 Manipuri
 * Best Feature Film in Punjabi
 * Best Biographical Film
 * Best Non-Feature Film on Family Welfare