Acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who headed the National Awards 2018 jury, is all praise for regional cinema.  In fact, he has gone a step further to say that there is an "incestuous relationship" at work to project only Bollywood as the best in India.  

"What an eye-opener it has been chairing the #NationalFilmAwards2018. The quality of regional cinema has left us stunned. It’s world class and its time to take away the tag of regional cinema. For Hindi cinema no longer can compete with the quality we saw from other languages.  Unfortunately, mainstream media and Bollywood enjoy a highly incestuous relationship. So the brilliance of the new regional cinema remains hidden from audiences. It’s time for that to change," Kapur says.  

Thanking the Government of India for choosing him, Kapur adds, "Thanks for bringing me home. Home to a world of Indian cinema that gets hidden behind the false glare of what we call Bollywood. Home to a Cinema of the heart. Home to a cinema that's bettered my films like 'Masoom' and 'Bandit Queen'."