Vidya Balan wins National Award for The Dirty Picture

Actor Vidya Balan has won the best actress National Award for her performance in The Dirty Picture and Onir's I Am was declared the best Hindi film. Vidya told a television channel, "It's unbelievable, the biggest honour."

Bollywood star Vidya Balan won the National award for the best actress for her performance of a Southern sex siren in The Dirty Picture at the 59th national awards, announced today.

The actor told a television channel, "It's unbelievable, the biggest honour." Vidya added that she was hoping to win the award.

The best feature film award was shared by Byari and Marathi film Deool, which also won its actor Girish Kulkarni the best actor award.

Onir directed I Am, a compilation of four stories on identity, won the best Hindi feature film.

The winners of the prestigious 59th National Film Awards were announced by chairpersons of the jury today. The awards will be given to the winners in a ceremony on May 3.

For feature films the names of the award winners were declared by Rohini Hattangady, who was the chairperson of the Feature Films Jury (Central Panel).

Ramesh Sharma, the chairperson of the Non-Feature films jury and Vijaya Mulay, who chaired the jury on the Best

Writing on Cinema announced the names of other award winners.

Vidya Balan in a still from the film The Dirty Picture

Winners
Best Actor: Girish Kulkarni for Marathi film Deool
Best Screenplay award: Vikas Behl, Nitish Tiwari for Chillar Party
Best Children's Film: Chillar Party
Best Choreographer: Bosco Caeser for ZNMD
Best Malayalam Film: Indian Rupee
Best Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya for I Am
Best Special Effects award: RA.One
Best Hindi Film: I Am, directed by Onir
Best Actress: Vidya Balan for The Dirty Picture
Best Book: RD Burman The Man, The Music