Punjab, Sept. 21 -- The 72nd National Film Awards are presented tomorrow at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat - the first time in seventy-two years the ceremony has been held outside Delhi. President Droupadi Murmu presents the honours. Anant Nag receives the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
The move out of Delhi
Ekta Nagar, formerly Kevadia, is the site of the Statue of Unity. Relocating a state ceremony there is a deliberate choice about where national occasions happen, and it is the kind of decision that tends to become permanent once the logistics have been proved once.
For an awards ceremony that recognises films from every Indian language, moving out of the capital has an argument behind it. Whether the winners find it easier or harder to attend is the...