‘Animal’, ‘Sam Bahadur’, ‘Parking’ Bag 3 National Film Awards In India

The Hindi films ‘Sam Bahadur’ and ‘Animal’ and the Tamil film ‘Parking get three wins each at the recently announced National Film Awards in India.

RSVP/Passion Studios/Bhadrakali Pictures

After 33 years in cinema and three decades of global stardom, Shah Rukh Khan finally bags his first National Film Award for Jawan. The awards were announced at a press conference on August 1, 2025. Khan shares the award with Vikrant Massey who receives it for Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail. Rani Mukerji also won her career’s first national film award – she is the Best Actress for 2023 and she bagged it for her performance in Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway. The box office hit Animal bagged three wins at the recently announced awards.

India announces National Film Awards: Shah Rukh Khan bags his first ever

Shah Rukh Khan made his acting debut in the 1980s on TV and the 1992 film Deewana was his Bollywood debut. Fondly known as SRK or King Khan among fans, the actor has since worked in more than a hundred films and experimented across genres. Some of his critically acclaimed films include Dil Se (1998), Swades (2004), Paheli (2005), Chak De India (2007), among a few others. He is among the most bankable stars in India. According to the latest Forbes India report, SRK is among the top five highest-paid actors in India.

However, in his career spanning more than three decades, Khan did not receive a single National Film Award – the most prestigious film award in India. Interestingly, Khan’s National Film award-winning film (Jawan) came after a significant drop in his career graph. After featuring in Anand L Rai’s Zero (2018), Khan took a long break from the camera. Despite riding high on publicity and promotions, Zero proved to be a major commercial and critical failure. Except for a few cameos, Khan did not work in films for almost five years since the debacle. It was Siddharth Anand’s Pathaan which marked his comeback to Bollywood. Pathaan released in January 2023 and proved to be one of the biggest box office hits in the history of Bollywood. Soon, Jawan hit theatres and a charted similar route at the box office. Anand has also directed Khan’s next, King which is yet to get a release date.

National Film Awards: Mainstream Hindi cinema wins big with Animal, Sam Bahadur

Mainstream Hindi films bagged several awards this year. The box office hit Animal has been given three awards. Meghna Gulzar’s biopic on Sam Manekshaw – Sam Bahadur and the Tamil film Parking also bagged three awards each.

Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaanii, Vikrant Massey-starrer 12th Fail, Khan’s Jawan and Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story won two awards each. Other films which also managed to secure two awards at the 71st National Film Awards include the Gujarati film Vash, Malayalam films Ullozhukku and Pookkaalam, the Telugu film Hanu-Man, children’s film Naal 2, and the Telugu romantic saga Baby.

National Film Awards: Mutiple award-winning films

Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail, based on Anurag Pathak’s novel ‘12th Fail’ which is the real-life story of IPS (Indian Police Services) officer Manoj Kumar Sharma who hailed from an Indian village. Sharma struggled through the challenges of one of the toughest competitive examinations in India while also braving through his financial crisis. Massey gave one of his career-best performances in the role which has now secured him a shared award – National Film Award.

Veteran actor Vijayaraghavan bagged his first National Film Award for the Malayalam film Pookkaalam and shared it with Muthupettai Somu Bhaskar who got it for the Tamil film Parking.

The award for best actress in a supporting role was also a shared one – Urvashi won the award for the critically acclaimed Malayalam film Ullozhukku while Janaki Bodiwala bagged it for the Gujarati film Vash. Vash was later remade as a Bollywood film – Shaitaan – which also featured Bodiwala in the same role.

Interestingly, Sunflowers Were The First Ones To Know… directed and written by FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) student Chidananda S Naik, bagged the National Film Award for the best script. The film earlier won La Cinef award for short films at Cannes Film Festival 2024.

Here is the complete list of winners at 71st National Film Awards (India).