National Film Awards 2018 Live updates: Boney Kapoor, daughters Janhvi, Khushi arrive to receive award for Sridevi

Over 60 winners of the National Film Awards have said that they will skip the ceremony on Thursday evening after a last minute announcement that President Ram Nath Kovind would be presenting only 11 awards, a departure from tradition. Controversy erupted over the 65th National Film Awards just a day before the ceremony after the awardees were told that not all of them would be receiving the awards by Kovind. This led to calls of boycott by some of the awardees and has put Thursday’s ceremony under a shadow. [caption id=“attachment_4320067” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Ram Nath Kovind. PTI[/caption] Mumbai Mirror reported that the awardees were informed of this development on Wednesday at the dress rehearsal for the ceremony. They were told that only 11 awards would be presented by Kovind while the rest would be handed over by Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Smriti Irani, Minister of State, I&B Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, and the I&B ministry’s secretary Narendra Kumar Sinha. The President will arrive after most of the awards have been handed out, will present 11 awards, and then will have a photo-op with the winners in groups of 45. This news agitated some of awardees which resulted in Irani rushing to the rehearsal venue and trying to placate the awardees, reported  The Asian Age. “She told us she had offered to cut down on her speech so all could be awarded by the President within the time he had given for the function,” the awardees said to The Asian Age. The awardees insisted that they were not belittling the ministers but were unhappy about the division in ceremonies. They felt that either all awards should be handed out by the President or none at all. Traditionally, all the National Film Awards are given out by the President. This tradition was followed in 2017 as well with then-president Pranab Mukherjee giving out all the awards personally. However, Kovind in his presidency, has followed the rule of not allotting more than one hour for any award ceremony. This was reiterated by his press secretary Ashok Malik who told  The Print that, “In all the award ceremonies he has attended, he gives away major awards and takes photographs with all awardees. That has been the standard practice, which has been conveyed to the organisers well in advance.”