A film on the Statue of Unity will receive a National Award in the shadow of the monument itself when the country’s top cinema honours make a rare journey out of Delhi this month.The 72nd National Film Awards ceremony will be held at Ektanagar, formerly Kevadia, in Gujarat on Sep 22, with President Droupadi Murmu presenting the honours, officials said Monday.The choice gives this year’s ceremony a distinctly symbolic setting. Ektanagar is home to the 597-foot Statue of Unity dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018. Among those being honoured is filmmaker Aanand L Rai, who has won Best Direction in the non-feature category for Statue of Unity – Ekta ka Prateek.Govt has not yet publicly spelt out the reason for shifting the ceremony from Delhi or indicated whether taking the awards to different parts of the country will become a regular practice.The move nevertheless breaks with a long-established pattern. Instituted in 1954, the National Film Awards have overwhelmingly been presented in Delhi, with Vigyan Bhawan hosting most ceremonies. They have, however, travelled outside the capital before. The 17th National Film Awards were presented at the University Centenary Auditorium in Madras, now Chennai, on Nov 21, 1970.
