National Film Award for Best Biographical Film

The National Film Award for Best Biographical Film is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awards presented for non-feature films and awarded with Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus).

The award was instituted in 1984, at 32nd National Film Awards and awarded annually for the short films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages.

Winners

Award includes 'Rajat Kamal' (Silver Lotus) and cash prize. Following are the award winners over the years:

Awards legends
	Indicates a joint award for the year
	Awarded as Best Biographical Film / Best Historical Reconstruction Film

List of films, showing the year, language(s), producer(s), director(s) and citation
Year	Film(s)	Language(s)	Producer(s)	Director(s)	Citation	Refs.
1984 (32nd)	Padmashri Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair	Malayalam	James Paul	Matthew Paul	–	[1]
1985 (33rd)	Satyajit Ray	English	Films Division	Shyam Benegal	For the deep analysis of the life and work of Satyajit Ray, in a face-to-face interaction.	[2]
1985 (33rd)	The Seer Who Walks Alone	English	G. Aravindan	G. Aravindan	For the sensitive portrayal of the life, personality and philosophy of J. Krishnamurthi, the noted philosopher.
1986 (34th)	Sister Alphonsa of Bharananganam	English	• Dejo Kappen  • George Sebastian	Rajiv Vijay Raghavan	For its creative use of cinematography in portraying with great sympathy and understanding the life of Sister Alphonsa.	[3]
1986 (34th)	Kamala Nehru	English	Uma Shankar	Ashish Mukherjee	For the innovative use of graphics in the effective depiction of the subject.
1987 (35th)	Basheer: The Man	English	Kannakulam Abdulla	M. R. Rahman	For its presentation of a relatively unknown literary personality through a fresh, spontaneous, uninhibited portrayal that brings out the complexity of an unconventional individual, rich in wit and worldly wisdom.	[4]
1988 (36th)	No Award					[5]
1989 (37th)	C. V. Raman: The Scientist and His Legacy	English	N. K. Saigal	Nandan Kudhyadi	For being an innovative and sensitive biography of a great scientist, C. V. Raman, portraying his achievements, trials and tribulations.	[6]
1990 (38th)	Baba	English	Mediart Film Pvt. Ltd	Rajiv Mehrotra	For the relaxed and sensitive portrayal of an extraordinary man of our times, bubbling with humanity, portraying the social causes for which Baba Amte has dedicated life, with a sense of deep involvement, never descending to eulogising.	[7]
1991 (39th)	Bhavantarana	Oriya	Bombay Cinematograph	Kumar Shahani	For presenting the life and art of Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra in distinct stylised manner.	[8]
1991 (39th)	Kabitar Ananta Jatrapathe	Bengali	Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal	Sanat Kumar Dasgupta	For imaginative visualisation of poetry of the late Jibananand Das and relating it to his life and time.
1992 (40th)	Pandit Bhimsen Joshi	Hindi	Gulzar for Films Division	Gulzar	For a moving rendering of the life of great master of ragas.	[9]
1993 (41st)	Colors of Absence	English	• Shanta Gokhale  • Arun Khopkar	Arun khopkar	For a beautifully crafted and successful presentation of the biography of the painter, Jehangir Sabavala, through his work. The sound design of the film has also been meticulously conceived.	[10]
1994 (42nd)	No Award					[11]
1995 (43rd)	A Living Legend	English	Aurora Film Corporation	Satadru Chaki	For portraying with sincerity the life of an educationist and parliamentarian Prof. Hiren Mukherjee.	[12]
1996 (44th)	Hastir Kanya	Assamese	Digbijay Medhi	Prabin Hazarika	For exploring the world of Goalpariya folk music through the life of singer Pratima Borooah Pandey of Gauripur, Assam.	[13]
1997 (45th)	Mounam Sowmanasyam	Malayalam	Ravindranath	Ravindran	For an insightful evocation of the shy and retiring filmmaker Arvindan, and the erudite assessement of his cinematic idiom.	[14]
1998 (46th)	• 'Premji': Ithihasathinte Sparsam  • Unarvinte Kalam: M.R.B.	Malayalam	Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi	M. R. Rajan	For an insightful voyage into the meaningful and exemplary lives of Premji and M.R.B., two legendary social reformers.	[15]
1999 (47th)	Nottam	Malayalam	Bina Narayan	M. R. Rajan	For portraying the renowned Kathakali actor Kizhpadam Kumaran Nair, his valuable contribution to the art form, his devotion, dignity and his insights into nature, art and life.	[16]
1999 (47th)	Mallika Sarabhai	English	Films Division	Aruna Raje Patil	For a vibrant presentation of a contemporary woman’s life and art, through the perspective of Mallika Sarabhai.
2000 (48th)	Devanarthakan (The Divine Dancer)	Malayalam	A. V. Ali Koya for Kerala State Chalachitra Academy	Sudish Gopalakrishnan	For the effective portrayal of Kodakkat Kannan Peruvannan, the renowned Theyyam artist, popularly known as Devanarthakan.	[17]
2001 (49th)	Teejan Bai	Hindi	Kuldeep Sinha for Films Division	V. Packirisamy	For the portrayal of the success story of the folk artist.	[18]
2002 (50th)	Meeting Manjit	English	Ina Puri	Buddhadeb Dasgupta	For making incisive use of the visual potential of cinema to give us rare insight into an artist's life, his subconscious and its articulation on canvas. The film brilliantly juxtaposes the journeys of the artist, his friend Ina and the film maker himself.	[19]
2003 (51st)	No Award					[20]
2004 (52nd)	It’s Prabhat	Marathi	A. V. Damle	Madhavi Vaidya	For presenting the glorious history of Prabhat Film Company in a very engaging and fascinating manner through excellent compilation of the excerpts of some of the renowned old films of the company.	[21]
2005 (53rd)	Hans Akela: Kumar Gandharva	Hindi	Films Division	Jabbar Patel	For a film made with a deep sense of understanding of classical Music. This well researched film sensitively evokes the unique personality and contribution of Kumar Gandharva and shows the human face of his outstanding creativity.	[22]
2006 (54th)	Minukku	Malayalam	• Devadasan Keezhpatt  • Bina Narayanan	M. R. Rajan	The film succeeds in imaginatively presenting the life story of "Kottakkal Sivaraman" the legendary Kathakali artist, who specialises in performing female roles. In the process it also highlights some aspects of traditional Kathakali dance.	[23]
2006 (54th)	Guru Laimayum Thambalngoubi Devi	Meitei	Aribam Syam Sharma	Aribam Syam Sharma	For the simplicity and grace with which the director has related the story of the great Manipuri dance and theatre artist "Guru Laimayum Thambalngoubi Devi".
2007 (55th)	Antardhwani	Hindi	Films Division	Jabbar Patel	For creatively bringing out the life and times of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma in his journey to revive the lost music of the Santoor and place it on the world stage. The pace and rhythm of the film is in tune with the melodious music of the Santoor.	[24]
2008 (56th)	The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: A Reconstruction	English	Films Division	R. Krishna Mohan	For traversing vast stretches of time and geographical space, this film deftly puts together strands of information, perception, evidence and historical contexts to reconstruct a compelling narrative about the gruesome assassination of a world leader.	[25]
2009 (57th)	Pancham Unmixed	• Bengali  • Hindi  • English	Brahmanand S Siingh	Brahmanand S Siingh	For an engaging compilation of the tumultuous journey of a legendary and iconic music composer of the Indian Film Industry whose music lives on.	[26]
2010 (58th)	Nilamadhaba	English	Films Division	Dilip Patnaik	For an intimate portrayal of the inimitable Sunanda Patnaik, whose life is inseparable from contemporary Indian classical music. The film explores the inner spirit of the artist through evocative moments, pregnant with visual passages.	[27]
2011 (59th)	Vishnupant Damle: Bolpatancha Mook Nayak	Marathi	Anil Anant Damle	Virendra Valsangkar	For capturing the odyssey of an unsung pioneer of cinema who dared to follow his dreams and enriched the grand canvas experience of the Indian film history.	[28]
2012 (60th)	Celluloid Man	• English  • Hindi  • Kannada  • Bengali	Shivendra Singh Dungarpur	Shivendra Singh Dungarpur	For capturing, with warmth, the essential impetus of the life of a person whose love for cinema and its diligent archiving has virtually created a cinematic heritage and encouraged generations of filmmakers. And for the film's ability to share the beauty of this impetus with its own creative archiving that makes for a rich multi-layered biography.	[29]
2013 (61st)	The Last Adieu	English	Films Division	Shabnam Sukhdev	For its insight into the work of an exceptionally passionate documentary filmmaker blended with a frank and moving account of his daughter’s attempt to come to terms with his estrangement from the family.	[30]
2014 (62nd)	Amar Katha: Story of Binodini	Bengali	Films Division	Tuhinabha Majumder	For its stylistic and poetic portrayal of the 19th century theatre actress Binodini Devi’s autobiography.	[31]
2015 (63rd)	Life In Metaphors: A Portrait Of Girish Kasaravalli	• English  • Kannada	Reelism Film	O.P. Shrivastava	Philosophical images of life and beyond.	[32]

References

External links

• Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India
• National Film Awards Archives