National Film Awards: Anjan’s tribute to Mrinal Sen, 3 Bengal kids bag top honours
Times of India | 19 July 2026
Kolkata: A poignant cinematic tribute to legendary director Mrinal Sen and a joint triumph by three child artists marked Bengal’s presence at the 72nd National Film Awards announced on Friday. The state’s creative legacy swept honours across generations, celebrating both a veteran storyteller and its youngest acting talents.
Anjan Dutt’s “Chalchitra Ekhon”, which traces his captivating 1981 journey with Mrinal Sen and the beginning of their unique mentor-protege relationship, bagged the Best Bengali Film award, sparking renewed interest in the director’s legacy. Speaking on the victory, Dutt told TOI, “Unfortunately, too little has been done for Mrinal-da even during his centenary. I hope this award will make people want to watch his films again and analyse them. I would sincerely want the film to be re-released for at least one week.”
Bengal also celebrated the national spotlight on Kolkata-born Vijay Ganguly, who won the Best Choreography award for the blockbuster “Stree 2”. Meanwhile, Riddhiman Banerjee, Tapomoy Deb and Gitashree Chakraborty jointly won the Best Child Artist award for their heartfelt performances in Sourav Palodhi’s “Onko Ki Kothin”. They shared the national honour alongside Athish S Shetty (for the Kannada film “Mithya”) and Arundev Pothula (for the Telugu film “35 – Chinna Katha Kaadu”).
Bengal’s legacy in this category began with Neera Malia for “Ranur Pratham Bhag” (1972), followed by Kushal Chakraborty in Satyajit Ray’s “Sonar Kella” (1974), Kanchan De Biswas for Tarun Majumdar’s “Ganadevata” (1978) and Aniket Sengupta for Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s “Phera” (1986). Ending a three-decade hiatus, Nur Islam and Samiul Alam secured a joint win for “Sahaj Paather Gappo” (2016).
Tapomoy, who shot “Onko Ki Kothin” at age 8 and is now 12, said: “I am thrilled that we three competed with so many child actors across India and won the award.” Gitashree, now 10, shared: “I have been doing theatre since I was 4. Had it not been for my guru Asish Kumar Khan, I would never have reached this level.” Riddhiman, who was just 6 during filming, added: “All one needs is to love the character to act well. I did just that.” Producer Rana Sarkar said: “We auditioned 200 children and selected these three. Our only instruction was not to act but just behave. The entire credit belongs to director Sourav Palodhi.”