Humbling, gratifying: National Film Award winners

It was a moment of celebration for the National Film Award winners like Ayushmman Khurrana, Vicky Kaushal, Aditya Dhar and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who called the recognition a "pat on the back" and a validation of their work.

Popular Bollywood films including "Uri: The Surgical Strike", "Andhadhun", "Badhaai Ho" and rising stars Vicky Kaushal and Ayushmann Khurrana took home the top trophies at the 66th National Film Awards.

"Badhaai Ho" and "Andhadhun", both starring Ayushmann, won two and three awards respectively.

"Badhaai Ho" got best popular film providing wholesome entertainment and veteran actor Surekha Sikri bagged the best supporting actress.

Sriram Raghavan's acclaimed "Andhadhun" bagged best Hindi film, best adapted screenplay and best actor for its lead Ayushmann, who played a blind musician in the thriller.

"It's truly humbling and hugely gratifying to win the coveted National Awards. As an artist, I have always tried to back disruptive content that stands out for its quality content. Today's honour is a validation of my hard work, my belief system, my journey in movies and my reason to be an actor in the first place," Ayushamann said in a statement.

Raghavan told PTI that he was "in the middle of a screening in Melbourne" when he got the news.

"It just feels great and I can only say thank you. I'm happy. Tabu is also here and she called me and said 'We got it'. I'm just chuffed right now."
Dhar, nodding to the popular 'how's the josh' phrase from his film, said the josh is "very very high."
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. 15 years of failures, rejections and hard work has lead to this moment and it just can't get better than this."
The debutante director dedicated the award to "each and every brave soldier of our country and their families."
Akshay Kumar starrer "Padman" bagged best film on social issues and the actor said he feels "very proud."
Twinkle called it a great honour to win the prestigious award and said she was overwhelmed "to receive so much love for my first production."