National Award Winning Directors are the inspiration to both art house directors and the commercial film makers. Award thrives to be appreciation, acknowledgement and inspiration for the merits and the assorted hard work of an individual and they are even the futuristic inspirational base for one and all. As cinema became a watchword for entertainment for the Indian populace, the Indian Movie Directors have contributed lots to the domain of cinema. Through the webs of time and patterns of age, Indian movie directors have helped in the evolution of Indian cinema. While they have entertained the masses with commercial movies they have also presented thought provoking films that have compelled the audiences to introspect.
Satyajit Ray received an array of National awards Satyajit Ray as a filmmaker has gifted cinema lovers some of the best cinematic brilliance. He is one of the few Oscar Award winners from India and had been awarded for Chiriyakhana, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Pratidwandi, Sonar Kella, Jana Aranya, Sakha Prasakha, Agantuk.
Mrinal Sen had been another stalwart who had been the receiver of a number of national awards. Mrinal Sen is a filmmaker who is generally thought of as a pioneer of the parallel cinema movement in India. He still remains a source of inspiration for many upcoming Bengali Film Directors. His directed cinema like Bhuvan Shome, Ek Din Pratidin, Akaler Sandhaney, Khandhar etc created history as they expressed the Indian sentiments delivered in a language like never before and in a style that suited the linguistic expression. When it comes to Aparna Sen the director has bagged a number of awards for her directorial ventures like 36 Chowringhee Lane, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer.
Buddhadeb Dasgupta another living legend from Bengal is a well-known poet and contemporary Indian filmmaker of great repute. His lyrics found in poetry form have been extended to cinema as well giving the reel world the lyricism of the real. During the early stages of his film career, Dasgupta made several films that were inspired by Satyajit Ray`s realistic film genre. He was awarded for Uttara, Swapner Din. Adoor Gopalakrishnan manifests his directorial ventures as organic growth, each film sunfurling from a point where he left the previous one and mixes lyricism and realism to reflect more or less directly the recent history of Kerala. He had been awarded the National award for Mukhamukham, Anantaram, Swayamvaram, Mathilukal, Naalu Pennungal.
G. Aravindan`s films are pervaded by a spiritualistic visual lyricism rooted in Indian religious traditions. He is described as "philosopher-poet of the Seventh Art" as his work reflected renewed thematically each time. Owing to the meditative dimension of a work that gets renewed thematically each time, in the course of the solitary career his films hardly were apprehensive about the reactions caused by his films. His films are pervaded by a spiritualistic visual lyricism rooted in Indian religious traditions. G Aravindan`s humanistic vision is uncompromising. The filmmaker clings to the inner world of beings while putting back cinema among other forms of art, painting, dance, drama, literature, etc. in his career span G Aravindan has directed 11 films. He received awards for Kanchana Sita, Thampu, Oridathu etc.
Rituparno Ghosh one of the contemporary Indian directors working mainly in Bengali language who can be very well tagged as the uncrowned trailblazer of new wave of Bengali Cinema who revolutionized in and out to fabricate the reel domains of real Renaissance. He had been awarded the National Award for path breaking films as for example Dahan, Abohoman, Titli, Utsab, Raincoat, etc. Contribution of Rituporno Ghosh to cinema lays bare the phenomenal side of the directors who dared to bare and portrayed the interpersonal relationships with sensitivity.
Madhur Bhandarkar by the dint of his offbeat and realistic cinematic endeavours crafted a niche of his won by which he not only earned accolades for himself but even bagged the national awards. He gained the award for Fashion, Traffic Signal, and Page 3. Madhur Bhandarkar is best known for his socially significant and hard-hitting films. In most of his films Madhur Bhandarkar is seen to make the female as the main protagonist. This has been followed in four of his films: Tabu in Chandni Bar, Raveena Tandon in Satta, Konkona Sen Sharma in Page 3, Bipasha Basu in Corporate, and Priyanka Chopra in Fashion.
Girish Raghunath Karnad, Mani Kaul , P. Lankesh, Shyam Benegal, Shaji N. Karun, Tapan Sinha Gautam Ghose and T. V. Chandran thrive to be the other notable Award winning Directors.