National Film Award for Best Music Direction

The National Film Award for Best Music Direction (the Silver Lotus Award) is an honour presented annually at the National Film Awards by the National Film Development Corporation of India to a musician who has composed the best score for films produced within the Indian film industry.^[1] The award was first introduced at the 15th National Film Awards in 1967. At the 42nd National Film Awards, an award for "Best Background Score" was instituted. It was however discontinued after that, and it was not until 2009 that the category was re-introduced. Later, during the 70th National Film Awards both the categories — Best Background Score and Best Background Music were clubbed together and named as "Best Background Music". A total of 51 awards—including award for Best Background music—to 40 different composers.^[2]

National Film Award for Best Music Direction
National award for contributions to Indian Cinema
The 2022 recipients: A. R. Rahman and Pritam
Awarded for	Best Music Direction and background score for a feature film of the year
Sponsored by	National Film Development Corporation of India
Reward(s)	Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) ₹2,00,000
First award	1967 (Songs) 1994 (Background music)
Final award	2022
Most recent winner	Pritam (Songs) A. R. Rahman (Background music)
Highlights
Most wins	A. R. Rahman (7)
Total awarded	53 (Songs) 10 (Background music)
First winner	K. V. Mahadevan

Although the Indian film industry produces films in around 20 languages and dialects,^[1] the recipients of the award include those who have worked in seven major languages: Hindi (19 awards), Tamil (11 awards), Telugu (10 awards), Malayalam (9 awards), Bengali (7 awards), Kannada (5 awards) and Marathi (2 awards).

The first recipient of the award was K. V. Mahadevan who was honoured for his composition in the Tamil film Kandan Karunai (1967).^[3] A. R. Rahman is the most frequent winner having won 7 awards. A. R. Rahman is also the only composer to have received a national award in his debut movie itself. Ilaiyaraaja has won it 5 times. Jaidev and Vishal Bhardwaj have won it three times each.^[4] Four musicians—B. V. Karanth, K.V. Mahadevan, Satyajit Ray, Johnson and M. M. Keeravani have won the award twice each. Ilaiyaraaja is the only composer to have won the award for achieving in three different languages — Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. While A. R. Rahman won the award for performing in two different languages — Tamil and Hindi (including one for his debut film) Roja (1992).^[5][a]

Johnson won the inaugural "Best Background Score" award—for Sukrutham—in 1994. When the award was reinstated in 2009, Ilaiyaraaja won it for the Malayalam film Pazhassi Raja.^[8]

Winners

Indicates winner for Best Background music

List of award recipients, showing the year (award ceremony), film(s) and language(s)
Year	Recipient(s)	Film(s)	Language	Refs.
1967 (15th)	K. V. Mahadevan	Kandan Karunai	Tamil	[9]
1968 (16th)	Kalyanji Anandji	Saraswatichandra	Hindi	[10]
1969 (17th)	S. Mohinder	Nanak Nam Jahaz Hai	Punjabi	[11]
1970 (18th)	Madan Mohan	Dastak	Hindi	[12]
1971 (19th)	Jaidev	Reshma Aur Shera	Hindi
1972 (20th)	Sachin Dev Burman	Zindagi Zindagi	Hindi	[13]
1973 (21st)	Satyajit Ray	Ashani Sanket	Bengali	[14]
1974 (22nd)	Ananda Shankar	Chorus	Bengali	[15]
1975 (23rd)	Bhupen Hazarika	Chameli Memsaab	Assamese	[16]
1976 (24th)	B. V. Karanth	Rishya Shringa	Kannada	[17]
1977 (25th)	B. V. Karanth	Ghatashraddha	Kannada	[18]
1978 (26th)	Jaidev	Gaman	Hindi	[19]
1979 (27th)	K. V. Mahadevan	Sankarabharanam	Telugu	[20]
1980 (28th)	Satyajit Ray	Hirak Rajar Deshe	Bengali	[21]
1981 (29th)	Khayyam	Umrao Jaan	Hindi	[22]
1982 (30th)	Ramesh Naidu	Meghasandesam	Telugu	[23]
1983 (31st)	Ilaiyaraaja	Saagara Sangamam	Telugu	[24]
1984 (32nd)	Jaidev	Ankahee	Hindi	[25]
1985 (33rd)	Ilaiyaraaja	Sindhu Bhairavi	Tamil	[26]
1986 (34th)	M. Balamuralikrishna	Madhvacharya	Kannada	[27]
1987 (35th)	Vanraj Bhatia	Tamas	Hindi	[28]
1988 (36th)	Ilaiyaraaja	Rudra Veena	Telugu	[29]
1989 (37th)	Sher Choudhury	Wosobipo	Karbi	[30]
1990 (38th)	Hridaynath Mangeshkar	Lekin...	Hindi	[31]
1991 (39th)	Rajat Dholakia	Dharavi	Hindi	[32]
1992 (40th)	A. R. Rahman	Roja[a]	Tamil	[33]
1993 (41st)	Johnson	Ponthan Mada	Malayalam	[34]
1994 (42nd)	Ravi (As Bombay Ravi)	• Sukrutham  • Parinayam	Malayalam	[35]
	Johnson	Sukrutham	Malayalam
1995 (43rd)	Hamsalekha	Sangeetha Sagara Ganayogi Panchakshara Gavai	Kannada	[36]
1996 (44th)	A. R. Rahman	Minsara Kanavu	Tamil	[37]
1997 (45th)	M. M. Keeravani	Annamayya	Telugu	[38]
1998 (46th)	Vishal Bhardwaj	Godmother	Hindi	[39]
1999 (47th)	Ismail Darbar	Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam	Hindi	[40]
2000 (48th)	Anu Malik	Refugee	Hindi	[41]
2001 (49th)	A. R. Rahman	Lagaan	Hindi	[42]
2002 (50th)	A. R. Rahman	Kannathil Muthamittal	Tamil	[43]
2003 (51st)	Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy	Kal Ho Naa Ho	Hindi	[44]
2004 (52nd)	Vidyasagar	Swarabhishekam	Telugu	[45]
2005 (53rd)	Lalgudi Jayaraman	Sringaram	Tamil	[46]
2006 (54th)	Ashok Patki	Antarnad	Konkani	[47]
2007 (55th)	Ouseppachan	Ore Kadal	Malayalam	[48]
2008 (56th)	Ajay–Atul	Jogwa	Marathi	[49]
2009 (57th)	Amit Trivedi	Dev.D	Hindi	[50]
	Ilaiyaraaja	Pazhassi Raja	Malayalam
2010 (58th)	Vishal Bhardwaj	Ishqiya	Hindi	[51]
	Isaac Thomas Kottukapally	Adaminte Makan Abu	Malayalam
2011 (59th)	Neel Dutt	Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona	Bengali	[52]
	Mayookh Bhaumik	Laptop	Bengali
2012 (60th)	Shailendra Barve	Samhita	Marathi	[53]
	Bijibal	Kaliyachan	Malayalam
2013 (61st)	Kabir Suman	Jaatishwar	Bengali	[54]
	Shantanu Moitra	Naa Bangaaru Talli	Telugu
2014 (62nd)	Vishal Bhardwaj	Haider	Hindi	[55]
	Gopi Sundar	1983	Malayalam
2015 (63rd)	M. Jayachandran	Ennu Ninte Moideen	Malayalam	[56]
	Ilaiyaraaja	Tharai Thappattai	Tamil
2016 (64th)	Bapu Padmanabha	Allama	Kannada	[57]
		Allama	Kannada
2017 (65th)	A. R. Rahman	Kaatru Veliyidai	Tamil	[58]
		Mom	Hindi
2018 (66th)	Sanjay Leela Bhansali	Padmaavat	Hindi	[59]
	Shashwat Sachdev	Uri: The Surgical Strike	Hindi
2019 (67th)	D. Imman	Viswasam	Tamil
	Prabuddha Banerjee	Jyeshthoputro	Bengali
2020 (68th)	Thaman S	Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo	Telugu	[60]
	G. V. Prakash Kumar	Soorarai Pottru	Tamil
2021 (69th)	Devi Sri Prasad	Pushpa: The Rise	Telugu	[61]
	M. M. Keeravani	RRR	Telugu
2022 (70th)	Pritam	Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva	Hindi	[62]
	A. R. Rahman	Ponniyin Selvan: I	Tamil

Notes

1. The jury of the 40th National Film Awards were tied between Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja—for Thevar Magan—before Balu Mahendra, the chairman voted in favour of Rahman.^[6][7]

References

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External links

• Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India
• National Film Awards Archives