Vidya Balan wins best actress award at National awards

Bollywood star Vidya Balan won the National award for the best actress for her performance of a Southern sex siren in "The Dirty Picture" at the 59th national awards, announced today.

The best feature film award was shared by "Byari" and Marathi film "Deool", which also won its actor Girish Kulkarni the best actor award. Onir directed 'I Am', a compilation of four stories on identity, won the best Hindi feature film.

The winners of the prestigious 59th National Film Awards were announced by chairpersons of the jury today. The awards will be given to the winners in a ceremony on May 3.

For feature films the names of the award winners were declared by Rohini Hattangady, who was the chairperson of the Feature Films Jury (Central Panel). Ramesh Sharma, the chairperson of the Non-Feature films jury and Vijaya Mulay, who chaired the jury on the Best Writing on Cinema announced the names of other award winners.