Vice president Venkaiah Naidu will give away the National Film Awards this year. The awards ceremony will be held in Delhi on 23rd December.
Last year, president Ram Nath Kovind had presided over the ceremony but gave away only 11 awards. This led to around 60 awardees boycotting the function on the ground that they were not informed in advance that they would be given their awards by the I & B minister. The apparent communication gap led to protests. To avoid a repeat of last year’s controversy, Naidu will preside over the ceremony this year.