National Film Award: Manoj Bajpayee wins best actor for ‘Bhonsle’

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New Delhi: Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpayee has managed to bag his third National Film Award as he has won the ‘Best Actor (Male)’ award for his much-acclaimed movie ‘Bhonsle’.

One of the country’s most eminent awards in entertainment, National Film Award announced to honour the ‘The Family Man’ star for his much-acclaimed movie ‘Bhonsle’ with the ‘Best Actor (Male) accolade in the 67th version of its prestigious award ceremony held virtually on Monday. The 67th version of the National Film Awards was initially going to be held in May last year but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Following this, the awards were announced to honour the entertainment industry’s best talent for the year 2019.

Held on Monday, the delegates announced that the Bajpayee’s performance in his Hindi-language drama ‘Bhonsle’ has bagged him the award for ‘Best Actor (Male)’ of 2019.
The Devashish Makhija directorial sees Bajpayee playing the role of the titular character named ‘Bhonsle’ who is a retired policeman and is living a non-interfering life in a colony dominated by locals, diagnosed with stage 4 brain tumour. When the migrant resident politics take a nasty turn, he chooses to take a stance and deal with it.

The ‘Aligarh’ actor, who co-produced the film alongside Piiyush Singh, befriends a North Indian girl and her brother who are targeted among other migrants by local politicians. The first look of the movie was launched at the 2018 ‘Cannes Film Festival’.

‘Bhonsle’ premiered in the ‘A Window on Asian Cinema’ section of the 2018 ‘Busan International Film Festival’ and was also screened in the non-competitive India Story section at the ‘MAMI Film Festival’, the 2018 ‘Dharamshala International Film Festival’, the 2019 ‘International Film Festival Rotterdam’, the Bengaluru ‘International Film Festival’ and the Singapore ‘South Asian film festival’.

The movie which was released on Sony LIV on 26 June 2020, has also won the Best Screenplay and Best Director Award at the ‘Asian Film Festival Barcelona’.

The 51-year-old method actor who was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, by the Government of India, for her contribution to arts, in 2019, has been the recipient of three National Film Awards: Best Supporting Actor for ‘Satya’, and Special Jury Award for his feature film ‘Pinjar’.

Meanwhile, the actor has been currently home quarantined after he tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week, following which, the shoot for his upcoming investigative thriller ‘Despatch’ has been stalled for now and is likely to be resumed in a couple of months.

The actor will be soon seen in the much-anticipated crime feature drama titled ‘Silence… Can You Hear It?, which will premiere on March 26 on Zee 5. Apart from this, season two of his Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK directorial hit web series ‘The Family Man’ is also in the pipeline. (ANI)