Indian cinema's best works for the year 2006 are finally being hounoured.

Indian cinema’s best works for the year 2006 are finally being hounoured. The 54th National Film Award winners have finally been announced. What’s interesting is that mainstream commercial Bollywood cinema is now getting a larger share of the awards pie.

However, given the controversy surrounding the National Film Awards of 2006, many were skeptical whether the awards would even see the light of the day.

Trouble started when documentary filmmaker, Anand Patwardhan filed a petition in 2006 with the Bombay High Court challenging the pre-condition that only films with a censor certificate were eligible to compete for the National Awards.

Though the High Court ordered a stay on the National Awards, the Supreme Court set aside the stay order after ruling that the Government had the full right to fix the eligibility criteria for the Awards.

At the same time, one of the jury members of the 53rd National Awards, Shyamali Bannerji, alleged that the entire process of selecting winners was rigged.

In her petition filed in the Delhi High Court, Bannerji also alleged that Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black did not qualify for any award as it is an adaptation of an English film titled The Miracle Worker.

However the petition was dismissed and Bollywood superstar, Amitabh Bachchan, went on to win the National Award for Best Actor for Black. Due to these legal hurdles, the National Awards for 2005 could be announced only in August 2007, and the backlog with a year’s delay continues.