National Film Award for Best Child Artist

The National Film Award for Best Child Artist is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with Silver Lotus (Rajat Kamal).

National Film Award for Best Child Artist
National award for contributions to Indian Cinema Instituted in 1968
The President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam presenting the Best Child Artist Awards for the year 2002
Awarded for	Best Performance by a child artist in a year
Sponsored by	Directorate of Film Festivals
Reward(s)	Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) ₹50,000 (US$700)
First awarded	1968
Last awarded	2018
Most recent winner/s	PV Rohit, Sahib Singh, Talha Arshad Reshi and Shrinivas Pokale
Highlights
Total awarded	77
First winner	Baby Rani
Website	https://dff.gov.in/Archive.aspx?ID=6

The award was instituted in 1968, at 16th National Film Awards and awarded annually for films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages. The actors whose performances have won awards have worked in eleven major languages. Hindi (24 awards), Tamil (13 awards), Malayalam (13 awards), Marathi (9 awards), Kannada (7 awards), Bengali (6 awards), Telugu (3 awards), Meitei (1 award), Konkani (1 award), Assamese (1 award), Oriya (1 award).

Winners

Indicates a joint award for that year

Award includes 'Silver Lotus' (Rajat Kamal) and cash prize. Following are the award winners over the years:

List of award recipients, showing the year (award ceremony), film(s) and language(s) and citation
Year	Recipient(s)	Role(s)	Film(s)	Language	Citation	Refs.
1967 (16th)	Baby Rani	Geetha	Kuzhanthaikkaga	Tamil	–	[1]
1969 (17th)	No Award					[2]
1970 (18th)	Rishi Kapoor	Young Raju	Mera Naam Joker	Hindi	–	[3]
1971 (19th)	Sachin		Ajab Tujhe Sarkar	Marathi	–	[4]
1972 (20th)	Neera Malia		Ranur Pratham Bhag	Bengali	–	[5]
1973 (21st)	G. S. Nataraj	Kitty	Kaadu	Kannada	–	[6]
1974 (22nd)	Kushal Chakraborty	Mukul Dhar	Sonar Kella	Bengali	–	[7]
1975 (23rd)	No Award					[8]
1976 (24th)	Raju Shrestha	Deepak Kumar Agnihotri (Deepu)	Chitchor	Hindi	–	[4]
1977 (25th)	Ajith Kumar	Naani	Ghatashraddha	Kannada	For depicting with rare sensitivity, a child's growth into awareness of the coarseness and brutality of the adult world, for his silent struggle to retain his innocence and his natural sense of justice; for his poetic evocation of the child's response to the slowly unfolding mysteries of life, the trivial, the brutal and tragic being inextricable elements of human experience.	[9]
1978 (26th)	Kanchan De Biswas		Ganadevata	Bengali	For being utterly himself.	[10]
1979 (27th)	Geeta Khanna	Bhavana	Aangan Ki Kali	Hindi	–
1980 (28th)	Aravind	Appu	Oppol	Malayalam	For portraying the complex role of a lonely child who is a victim of social ostracisation for no fault of his own, for bringing out the terrible emotional trauma with little dialogue and a superb economy of gesture.	[11]
1981 (29th)	Leikhendra Singh	Thoithoi	Imagi Ningthem	Meitei	For an endearing portrayal of a child and his yearning for a mother's love.	[12]
1982 (30th)	Vimal	Rajesh (Unni)	Aaroodam	Malayalam	For its touching innocence and lack of self-consciousness which lend meaning to the theme.	[13]
1983 (31st)	Suresh	Kayama (Younger Ramachandran)	Malamukalile Daivam	Malayalam	For lively depiction of a wide range of emotions of a tribal lad.	[14]
1984 (32nd)	Aravind	Vinod	My Dear Kuttichathan	Malayalam	–	[15]
	Suresh	Vijay
	Mukesh
	Sonia	Lakshmi
1985 (33rd)	Puneeth Rajkumar	Ramu	Bettada Hoovu	Kannada	For his lively and effortless performance in the role of a poor boy who has to make the difficult choice between his personal goal and his family responsibilities.	[16]
1986 (34th)	Aniket Sengupta	Kanu	Phera	Bengali	For his lively and poignant portrayal of a young boy who brings new faith and meaning to the life of an aged artiste.	[17]
1987 (35th)	Manjunath	Swamy	Swamy	Hindi	For his utterly charming and delightful portrayal of a young school going village boy who is combination of innocence and mischief, pointing to the inherent natural wisdom of the young.	[18]
1988 (36th)	Shafiq Syed	Krishna (Chipau)	Salaam Bombay!	Hindi	For the natural ease with which he has portrayed a slum child.	[19]
1989 (37th)	Mrinmayee Chandorkar	Chhakuli	Kalat Nakalat	Marathi	For her innocent and spontaneous portrayal.	[20]
1990 (38th)	Shamili	Anjali	Anjali	Tamil	For giving excellent performances in which the children come across in all naturalness and yet give a glimpse of the adult within.	[21]
	Tarun	Arjun
	Shruthi	Anu
1991 (39th)	Santhosh Reddy		Bhadram Koduko	Telugu	For giving a natural performance of a street-smart child.	[22]
1992 (40th)	Amit Phalke		Mujhse Dosti Karoge	Hindi	For the sheer joy and versatility he brings to the portrayal of a lovable lad lost in his own dream world.	[23]
1993 (41st)	Tarasankar Misra		Lavanya Preethi	Oriya	For depicting successfully the process of growing up from childhood to adolescence and the first awareness of sexuality.	[24]
1994 (42nd)	Vijay Raghavendra	Kotresha	Kotreshi Kanasu	Kannada	For his portrayal of bright little boy who is a social outcast. He wins your heart with his soft and endearing mannerisms.	[25]
1995 (43rd)	Vishwas	Murthy	Kraurya	Kannada	For his sensitive portrayal of a child, traumatised in an adult world devoid of love and understanding.	[26]
1996 (44th)	Kavya	Bunny	Little Soldiers	Telugu	For her excellent performance.	[27]
	Kumar	Parameswaran (Pachu)	Desadanam	Malayalam	For his excellent performance.
1997 (45th)	Dhanraj		Dhanna	Hindi	For actor's natural portrayal of a disabled person. His curiosity and interests make him turn from a social outcaste into a self-learning member of community.	[28]
1998 (46th)	P. Shwetha	Malli	Malli	Tamil	For her infectious and vibrant performance of a young child's pure bonding with nature and her trauma at the decadence in environment.	[29]
1999 (47th)	Aswin Thampy		Jalamarmaram	Malayalam	For essaying the innocent faith of a child in the existence of a mermaid, and his confident strides to provide it with a safe environment.	[30]
2000 (48th)	Udayaraj	Balasubramaniam (Pulli)	Nila Kaalam	Tamil	For his portrayal of Pulli in the film. Pulli is a very young orphan who works in a motor garage in chennai. The jury applauds the way in which Master Udayaraj brings out both the innocence and street-smartness of Pulli, with a combination of energy and spontaneity.	[31]
2001 (49th)	P. Shwetha	Kannamma (Kutty)	Kutty	Tamil	For her subdued portrayal of Kutty, a young girl made to suffer the agonies of social disparity and human exploitation.	[32]
2002 (50th)	Shweta Prasad	• Chunni  • Munni	Makdee	Hindi	For her spontaneous and lively portrayal of twin sisters.	[33]
	P. S. Keerthana	Amudha	Kannathil Muthamittal	Tamil	For her heart vending portrayal of a girl in search of her mother.
2003 (51st)	Ashwin Chitale	Parashuram Vichare	Shwaas	Marathi	For his haunting performance as a child who realises he is going to lose his eyesight.	[34]
	Kalidas Jayaram	Vasudev	Ente Veedu Appoontem	Malayalam	For his versatility in portraying a range of complex emotions.
2004 (52nd)	Om Bhutkar		Chhota Sipahi	Hindi	For his gradual evolution from a naïve innocent young child to a patriot in the liberation movement of Goa.	[35]
2005 (53rd)	Sai Kumar		Bommalata	Telugu	For his haunting performance as a child who realises his burning desire to access school education.	[36]
2006 (54th)	Divya Chaphadkar		Antarnad	Konkani	For evoking the complex emotions of a talented child overshadowed by a celebrity mother.	[37]
2007 (55th)	Sharad Goekar		Tingya	Marathi	For covering the range from tenderness to angry defiance with consummate ease, while portraying Tingya, a boy whose love for his ox is the driving force of his young life.	[38]
2008 (56th)	Shams Patel	Municipality	Thanks Maa	Hindi	For his very natural depiction of a street child thrown into an unusual situation.	[39]
2009 (57th)	Kishore	Anbukkarasu	Pasanga	Tamil	For the spirited performance of a protagonist and an antagonist who are incomplete without each other. The two young shoulders carry the narrative through a delightful journey.	[40]
	Sree Raam	Jeeva Nithyanandham
2010 (58th)	Harsh Mayar	Chotu (Kalam)	I Am Kalam	Hindi	For performing with bright, shining eyes and an urchin smile, the razor sharp spirit of a survivor who dreams of excelling.	[41]
	Shantanu Ranganekar		Champions	Marathi	For two brothers bonded by blood and responsibility battling for survival in the underbelly of a heartless city.
	Machindra Gadkar
	Vivek Chabukswar		Baboo Band Baaja	Marathi	For capturing the indomitable spirit of a young village boy who is hungry to learn in an environment that closes all doors on him.
2011 (59th)	Partho Gupte	Stanley Fernandes	Stanley Ka Dabba	Hindi	For demonstrating a rare maturity in his performance as he conveys his interiority. His expressive face and an obvious ability to understand the complex role of a child who invents a harrowing double life, make him an outstanding child artiste.	[42]
	Irrfan Khan	Fatka	Chillar Party	Hindi	For performing its roles extremely well with a refreshing and credible on-screen innocence. The roles were difficult as the children not only had to rise to the challenge of interacting with one other as a gang of young kids who have to battle against a universe of adults, but also to develop their own characters, which required both humour and pathos. They played out the comic sequences with impeccable timing.
	Sanath Menon	Arjun / Encyclopedia
	Rohan Grover	Rishabh / Ronny / Ramashanker Iyer / Akram
	Naman Jain	Balwan / Jhangiya
	Aarav Khanna	Aflatoon
	Vishesh Tiwari	Lakshman / Second Hand
	Chinmai Chandranshuh	Lucky / Panauti
	Vedant Desai	Silencer
	Divij Handa	Shaolin
	Shriya Sharma	Toothpaste
2012 (60th)	Virendra Pratap	Ghumroo	Dekh Indian Circus	Hindi	Unaffected and natural to the core, the child actor looks totally at home in the role of a playful yet responsible youngster.	[43]
	Minon	Anilkumar Bokaro	101 Chodyangal	Malayalam	A precocious child pushed into the vortex of his struggling family, the actor has displayed consummate artistry
2013 (61st)	Somnath Avghade	Jambuvant Kachru Mane (Jabya)	Fandry	Marathi	For playing the role of a Dalit teenager to perfection. His angst clearly boils over as the realities of life dawn upon him.	[44]
	Sadhana	Chellamma	Thanga Meenkal	Tamil	For playing the part of a dyslexic child with sensitivity and exuberance and yet with ease.
2014 (62nd)	J. Vignesh	Periya Kaaka Muttai	Kaaka Muttai	Tamil	For their portrayal of inseparable siblings living in a slum who innocently struggle with rare dignity to acquire what attracts them in this vast market of products unleashed by a liberal economy only to realise the harsh reality of invincible class boundaries.	[45]
	Ramesh	Chinna Kaaka Muttai
2015 (63rd)	Gourav Menon	Ben	Ben	Malayalam	For an outstanding performance on a wide spectrum of emotions, of a boy going through great turmoil.	[46]
2016 (64th)	Adish Praveen	Joseph / Ousepachan	Kunju Daivam	Malayalam	He wears purity and innocence on his sleeves.	[47]
	Noor Islam	Chhotu	Sahaj Paather Gappo	Bengali	The eternal and unique way of approaching life through their extraordinary performances.
	Samiul Alam	Gopal
	Manohara K.	Jollu	Railway Children	Kannada	A childlike impulsiveness coated with the desire of attaining adulthood.
2017 (65th)	Bhanita Das	Dhunu	Village Rockstars	Assamese	–
2018 (66th)	P. V. Rohith	Sameera	Ondalla Eradalla	Kannada	For impishly manoeuvering through a series of events, while staying focused on his character.	[48]
	Sameep Singh	Young Harjeet Singh	Harjeeta	Punjabi	For effectively depicting the struggle of a hockey player to rise from his rural roots.
	Talha Ahmed Reshi	Hamid	Hamid	Urdu	For the poise in the character depicting a range of emotions.
	Shrinivas Pokhale	Chaitanya Bhosale (Chaitya)	Naal	Marathi	For performing effortlessly through complicated emotions.

References

1. "16th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. p. 2. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
2. "17th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
3. "18th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
4. "Shortlived stardom". The Tribune. 13 August 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
5. "20th National Film Awards". International Film Festival of India. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
6. "21st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 September 2011.
7. "22nd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
8. "23rd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
9. "25th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
10. "26th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
11. "28th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
12. "29th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
13. "30th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
14. "31st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
15. "32nd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
16. "33rd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
17. "34th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
18. "35th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
19. "36th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
20. "37th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
21. "38th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
22. "39th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
23. "40th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
24. "41st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
25. "42nd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
26. "43rd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
27. "44th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
28. "45th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
29. "46th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
30. "47th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
31. "48th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
32. "49th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
33. "50th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. pp. 18–19. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
34. "51st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
35. "52nd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
36. "53rd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
37. "54th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
38. "55th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
39. "56th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
40. "57th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
41. "58th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
42. "59th National Film Awards for the Year 2011 Announced". Press Information Bureau (PIB), India. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
43. "60th National Film Awards Announced" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau (PIB), India. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
44. "61st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. 16 April 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
45. "62nd National Film Awards" (PDF) (Press release). Directorate of Film Festivals. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
46. "63rd National Film Awards" (PDF) (Press release). Directorate of Film Festivals. 28 March 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
47. "64th National Film Awards" (PDF) (Press release). Directorate of Film Festivals. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
48. "66th National Film Awards" (Press release).

External links

• Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India
• National Film Awards Archives
• National Film Awards at IMDb