72nd National Film Awards: Tamil Cinema Dominates, Snubs Spark Debate

July 19, 2026 Published by indiaglitzcom

72nd National Film Awards: Tamil Cinema Dominates, Snubs Spark Debate

• Top winner:Article 370 led all films with three awards, including Best Feature Film and Best Actress.

• Tamil dominance: Tamil films won Best Director, Best Background Score, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Social Values Film.

• Best Actor: Kartik Aaryan and Mammootty shared the award for Chandu Champion and Bramayugam respectively.

• Telugu strength:Kalki 2898 AD and Pushpa 2 combined for four awards across technical and popular categories.

• Key controversy: The results sparked debate among fans, with notable snubs fueling discussion across regional film industries.

The 72nd National Film Awards were announced on July 18, 2026, at the National Media Centre in New Delhi, celebrating the finest Indian cinema released during the 2024 calendar year. Central jury chairman Jayaraj presided over the announcement, and the results sent ripples across every regional film industry, from Bollywood to Kollywood to Mollywood. For Tamil cinema fans in particular, it was a night of both celebration and considerable heartbreak.

Article 370 had the most dominant evening among Hindi films, walking away with the Best Feature Film trophy and two additional awards: Best Actress for Yami Gautam and Best Music Direction (Songs) for Shashwat Sachdev. That’s three awards from a single politically charged thriller, which is no small feat at a ceremony that tends to spread its recognition wide across languages and genres.

The Best Actor award was shared between Kartik Aaryan for Chandu Champion and Mammootty for Bramayugam. Mammootty’s win marks his fourth National Award, a milestone that MammoottyKampany, his production company, described as “a moment of immense pride and joy” and “another golden chapter in a legacy that continues to inspire.” For Kartik Aaryan, it is his first National Award, a significant validation for an actor who spent years building credibility in mainstream Bollywood.

Tamil director Rajkumar Periasamy won Best Director for Amaran, one of the bigger Tamil wins of the night, while G.V. Prakash Kumar claimed Best Music Direction (Background Score) for the same film, his third National Award overall, a fact he celebrated on social media with visible emotion.

On the Telugu side, Kalki 2898 AD took Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and Best Production Design. Pushpa 2: The Rule bagged Best Costume Design and Best Original Screenplay.

Complete Winners List

Major Awards

Screenplay Awards

Technical Awards

Child Artist Awards

Regional Language Film Awards

Awards by Language: 72nd National Film Awards

Here is how each regional film industry performed across the full winners list announced on July 18, 2026.

Special Mentions

Tamil Cinema at the 72nd National Awards

Amaran was undeniably the most decorated Tamil film of the night, picking up Best Director for Rajkumar Periasamy, Best Music Direction (Background Score) for G.V. Prakash Kumar, and Best Editing for R. Kalaivannan. That’s three awards for a film that was already one of 2024’s biggest box office stories, and it cements Periasamy’s position as one of Kollywood’s most important directorial voices right now.

Dhanush-directed Raayan won Best Tamil Film, which is a significant honour for an actor-turned-director who put everything into that project. Captain Miller, also starring Dhanush, received the Best Film Promoting National or Social Values award and earned Dhanush a Special Mention, making him the only person in Tamil cinema to feature twice in this year’s announcement. Maharaja claimed Best Action Direction and Best Supporting Actress for Sachana Namidass, ensuring Vijay Sethupathi’s film didn’t leave empty-handed even as its lead actor was overlooked.

G.V. Prakash Kumar’s third National Award deserves its own moment. Winning for background score on a film as emotionally demanding as Amaran, which tells the true story of Major Mukund Varadarajan, is validation that the composer brought real depth to material that could easily have leaned on sentimentality alone. His social media reaction, “An immense blessing for the third time”, captured exactly how much these recognitions compound in meaning over a career.

The Big Snubs: Maharaja and Meiyazhagan Miss Out

This is where it gets contentious, and Tamil fans on social media made sure the jury knew it. Going into the announcements, several Tamil films were considered strong contenders for marquee categories: Meiyazhagan, Vaazhai, Kottukkaali, Thangalaan, and Maharaja were all expected to challenge for top honours. None of them won in the major acting or filmmaking categories, and the reaction online was swift and pointed.

Maharaja, directed by Nithilan Swaminathan and featuring what many fans and critics considered one of Vijay Sethupathi’s most carefully constructed performances, walked away with Best Action Direction and Best Supporting Actress for Sachana Namidass. Both are respectable wins, but for a film that spent much of its theatrical run being hailed as a standout thriller, the absence of a Best Actor nomination for Vijay Sethupathi hit Tamil audiences hard. The film’s central performance, built around restraint and a slow reveal of emotional stakes that spans the entire second half, is precisely the kind of work that National Awards juries have historically favoured. Many fans felt it was exactly the category where Sethupathi should have been competing.

Meiyazhagan, the Karthi and Arvind Swami-led bromance drama directed by Mu. Maran, received a Special Mention for sound mixing, a recognition, yes, but one that reads as a consolation against the backdrop of how warmly the film was received. The film’s emotional register, its quietly observed portrait of friendship and time, had built it a devoted audience that genuinely expected the jury to notice. Receiving a technical special mention when the narrative craft was the film’s real achievement stung for a lot of people.

Social media reactions from Tamil fans ranged from resigned disappointment to outright frustration. Comparisons between the jury’s choices and what audiences had responded to during the theatrical run kept recurring across posts and threads. The common thread in those conversations was a feeling that films made with restraint and regional specificity, exactly the qualities the National Awards are supposed to celebrate, were being passed over in favour of narratives with more visible national or political resonance. Whether that’s a fair reading of the jury’s process is debatable, but as a reflection of audience sentiment, it’s hard to dismiss.

Non-Feature Films

The 72nd edition made one thing abundantly clear: Indian cinema in 2024 was genuinely spread across languages and sensibilities, and no single industry dominated the way previous years occasionally allowed. Tamil cinema earned meaningful recognition through Amaran, Raayan, and Captain Miller, while the grief over Maharaja and Meiyazhagan speaks to just how strong Kollywood’s 2024 output actually was. When a year’s snubs generate this much conversation, it usually means the films deserved more than they got. What do you think, did the jury get it right? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.

About the 72nd National Film Awards

The 72nd National Film Awards were announced on July 18, 2026, in New Delhi, covering films certified by the CBFC during the 2024 calendar year. The jury was chaired by Malayalam filmmaker Jayaraj, as confirmed by The Indian Express.

Tamil cinema had a particularly strong showing. DT Next and Sigaram.net both highlight Amaran, Captain Miller, and Raayan among the major Tamil winners. Moneycontrol specifically notes that Raayan won Best Tamil Film and that Dhanush received a special mention. India Today confirms Mammootty’s Best Actor win alongside coverage of Tamil cinema’s top nods.

Sources

• The Indian Express — 72nd National Film Awards: Full Winners List

• India Today — 72nd National Film Awards Winners

• Moneycontrol — Complete Winners List

• DT Next — Full List of Awardees

• Sigaram.net — List of Tamil Winners