In a big win, Sardar Udham won the National Award in five categories on Thursday. Vicky Kaushal, who played the lead role in the film along with his director Shoojit Sircar shared individual posts on Instagram thereby dedicating the film's massive feat to late actor Irrfan Khan, who was originally set to portray the central character. Soon after the awards were announced, Vicky Kaushal shared a poster of the film featuring himself and wrote, "Congratulations team!!! Honoured and grateful to be a part of #SardarUdham … To Irrfan Sir!"
For the unversed, Sardar Udham won 5 awards including Best Hindi Film.
See Vicky Kaushal's post here:
Sardar Udham director Shoojit Sircar also dedicated the film's victory at the prestigious National Film Awards to Irrfan Khan, who died of cancer in 2020. In his post, Shoojit Sircar wrote, "Dedicated to Irrfan Khan”
The biopic, which was released on Prime Video last year, tracks the life of the freedom fighter, who assassinated Michael O'Dwyer, the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab in British India in 1940, to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
At the 69th National Awards, Rocketry: The Nambi Effect was awarded Best Film. Kriti's Mimi co-star Pankaj Tripathi won Best Supporting Actor and Pallavi Joshi won Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Kashmir Files which also won Best Film on National Integration.
The feature film awardees were announced by jury head filmmaker Ketan Mehta. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest film honour, will be announced later. The National Awards will be handed out by President Droupadi Murmu in a ceremony later in the year.