The 54th National Film Awards were awarded by Indian President Pratibha Patil at the Vigyan Bhawan in the Capital on Tuesday after a delay of almost one year. This award was the 54th National Film awards for the year 2006.
It was the country's regional cinema that dominated the ceremony with Priyanandanan bagging the best film award for his Malyalam film Pulijanmam.
Soumitra Chatterjee was named the best actor for Bengali film Podokkhep, while Priyamani was judged best actress for her performance in Tamil film Paruthi Veeran.
The Best Popular award went to Sanjay Dutt starrer Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani were present to receive the award.
Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Dilip Kumar, veteran actress Saroja Devi and Lata Mangeshkar whose award was collected by Adinath Mangeshkar on her behalf.
Filmmaker Tapan Sinha was awarded the Dada Saheb Phalke Award that was collected by Anandya Sinha in his place.