00:00Some more news coming in. National awards to be held in K-Varya in Gujarat instead of Delhi this year.
00:07This year, the national awards for the first time in decades will move from the national capital to K-Varya,
00:12Gujarat.
00:13President Draupadi Murmu will honour the awardees at the end of this month.
00:17K-Varya is the place where the Statue of Unity is located.
00:21And interestingly, filmmaker Anand L. Rai was awarded Best Direction in the non-feature category for Statue of Unity, Ekta
00:28Ka Prateek.
00:29The national awards were announced in July and artists like Yami Gautam, Kartikaran, Mahmoodi, Randi Puddha and Sanjay Mishra and
00:36others were announced to have received the honours.
00:38But the reason why the national awards this year are making headlines is because of the venue.
00:45So the national awards have moved out of Delhi for this year and this time it will be held in
00:51K-Varya in Gujarat.
00:53So this is the first time that the national awards will be moving out of Delhi in decades.
00:57And it will be held in K-Varya in Gujarat.
01:00Now this comes amid the ongoing controversy where the opposition has been alleging how there has been political favouritism for
01:07Gujarat and how everything is being awarded to Gujarat.
01:10Earlier we also saw how there was politics which was being done over Commonwealth Games being held in Ahmedabad in
01:172030.
01:18And the opposition was raising questions that why not any other part of the country, why not the national capital.
01:26In fact, Congress MP Dipendir Huda had claimed that most of the medal winners are from Haryana.
01:31Then why not Haryana itself.
01:33And now the national awards have also moved out from Delhi to K-Varya which is also in Gujarat.
01:42And in fact, my colleague Sana Farzeen is now joining us on this story.
01:46Sana, very good morning to you.
01:48So the big highlight of the national film awards is that it will not be held in the national capital.
01:54In fact, it will be held in K-Varya, Gujarat.
01:56Now what is also, what makes this interesting is that this comes amid the allegations that are continuously being levelled
02:03by the opposition leaders
02:05that how there has been a favouritism for Gujarat, there has been a political favouritism for Gujarat.
02:13Everything is being awarded to Gujarat.
02:17Absolutely Anjali, what you're mentioning is correct.
02:20It's for the first time in more than seven decades that national awards is moving to Gujarat.
02:27It has been celebrated in Delhi.
02:29That was the history of national awards, as it's called national awards.
02:34And rightly mentioned, the opposition has a point to make, not just the Commonwealth,
02:39but even the World Cup finals were moved to the Narendra Modi Stadium.
02:43And that has become a bone of contention for a lot of political parties.
02:48And that discussion has been going on for a long time, that why everything important,
02:53why everything significant is moving to Gujarat, why they are being favoured.
02:59And now with national awards that has been celebrated in the national capital for years,
03:04for more than seven decades, the 72nd edition will now be moved to Gujarat, to Iktanagar K-Varya.
03:11And there is, of course, a direct connection because this year's award also saw filmmaker Anand El-Rai
03:18win Best Direction in the non-feature category for Statue of Unity, Ekta Kapateek.
03:24And Ekta Nagar is the place where the Statue of Unity is present.
03:28And it's one of Gujarat's and India's major landmarks.
03:31And probably they wanted to celebrate it.
03:34But the reason that why national award has been moved to Gujarat has not been clarified by the ministry.
03:42And therefore, there's a lot of speculation around why Gujarat was chosen as the place to celebrate this national honour.
03:49And then, of course, how the opposition have pointed out that there have been multiple occasions
03:55where Gujarat found itself being favoured, not just with the national award, but also the Commonwealth Tournament
04:03and even the World Cup finals that were moved to Ahmedabad, to the newly-made stadium.
04:11And, of course, the national award is one occasion that has been one of the most highlighted celebrations
04:18of the cinema industry.
04:20Everyone's looking forward to watch the awards that will, of course, be honoured to celebrities
04:25like Yami Gautam, Kartik Arian, Mahmuthi.
04:28And, of course, it's a big highlight because this is the 72nd award
04:33and it's for the first time that we'll not have the celebration in Delhi, but in Gujarat's Kewadiyah.
04:40Absolutely. And, Sana, is this an exceptional case?
04:44Is this going to be the case just this year or will this happen every year
04:48that now the national awards will, in fact, be held in different parts of the country
04:54and not just in the national capital?
04:58Anjali, the authorities have been very tight-lipped about this move
05:02and we've been trying to find out what actually led to them actually moving the award ceremony
05:10because we've all known that it is a celebration where the president awards the cinema artists in Delhi.
05:18And for the first time, it was made, the announcement was made that it will happen in Kewadiyah.
05:23We tried checking for details, but, however, they've been very tight-lipped about what happened
05:29and why that move has happened.
05:30Therefore, they are not even commenting on whether this will be a move that will, of course,
05:36be a regular move that they'll move it to Kewadiyah every year or it's just an exception this year.
05:41So we'll have more details coming in later.
05:44But as of now, it's a surprise move.
05:47It's definitely something that's debatable that the political parties will definitely pick up in the coming years
05:53because, as we were discussing, it's not just the national award that has moved to Kewadiyah, to Gujarat,
05:58but Gujarat, for the opposition party, has been favoured by the ruling party for getting all the important occasions
06:09and being favoured by awards and, of course, all the important landmark events, be it the Commonwealth or the World
06:16Cup.
06:17Absolutely, Sanaa. Thank you for those details.
06:19So there's still no clarity what was the reason behind the surprise move.
06:23But the national awards in decades has now, for the first time, moved out of Delhi
06:27and will be held in Kewadiyah in Gujarat.
06:29Though the exact reason for moving these awards out of the national capital has not been cited by the government.
06:35But politics is likely to happen over this matter because the opposition has been time and again claiming
06:44how important projects are awarded to Gujarat, how important events are held in Gujarat,
06:49be it the World Cup Final or be it the Commonwealth Games that will be held in Gujarat.
06:56And now even the national awards will not be held in the national capital but Gujarat.
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