| Year | Screenplay Writer | Film |
| 2010 | 1.P. F. Mathews & Harikrishna (Original Screenplay) 2.Gopal Krishan Pai & Girish Kasaravalli (best adapted screenplay) 3.Pandiraj (Dialogues) |
1.Kutty Srank(Malayalam) 2.Kanasemba Kudureyaneri(Kannada) 3.Pasanga(Tamil) |
| 2009 | Sachin Kundalkar | Gandha(Marathi) |
| 2008 | Feroz Abbas Khan | Gandhi, My Father(Hindi) |
| 2007 | Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra | Lage Raho Munna Bhai(Hindi) |
| 2006 | Prakash Jha, Manoj Tyagi & Shridhar Raghavan | Apaharan(Hindi) |
| 2005 | Manoj Tyagi & Nina Arora | Page 3(Hindi) |
| 2004 | Gautam Ghose | Abar Aranye(Bengali) |
| 2003 | Aparna Sen | Mr. and Mrs. Iyer(English) |
| 2002 | Neelakanta | Show(Telugu) |
| 2001 | Bharathiraja | Kadal Pookkal(Tamil) |
| 2000 | Madampu Kunjukuttan | Karunam(Malayalam) |
| 1999 | Ashok Mishra | Samar(Hindi) |
| 1998 | Rituparno Ghosh | Dahan(Bengali) |
| 1997 | Agathiyan | Kadhal Kottai(Tamil) |
| 1996 | Saeed Akhtar Mirza & Ashok Mishra | Naseem(Hindi) |
| 1995 | M.T. Vasudevan Nair | Parinayam(Malayalam) |
| 1994 | Satyajit Ray | Uttoran(Bengali) |
| 1993 | M.T. Vasudevan Nair | Sadayam(Malayalam) |
| 1992 | M.T. Vasudevan Nair | Kadavu(Malayalam) |
| 1991 | K.S. Sethu Madhavan | Marupakkam(Tamil) |
| 1990 | M.T. Vasudevan Nair | Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha(Malayalam) |
| 1989 | Arundhati Roy | In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones(English) |
| 1988 | Adoor Gopalakrishnan | Anantharam(Malayalam) |
| 1987 | Budhdhadeb Dasgupta | Phera(Bengali) |
| 1986 | Bhabendra Nath Saikia | Agni Snaan(Assamese) |
| 1985 | Adoor Gopalakrishnan | Mukhamukham(Malayalam) |
| 1984 | G V Iyer | Adi Shankaracharya(Sanskrit) |
| 1983 | Mrinal Sen | Kharij(Bengali) |
| 1982 | K. Balachander | Thanneer Thanneer(Tamil) |
| 1981 | Mrinal Sen | Akaler Sandhane(Bengali) |
| 1980 | Sai Paranjpye | Sparsh(Hindi) |
| 1979 | T.S. Ranga & T.S. Nagabharana | Grahana(Kannada) |
| 1978 | Satyadev Dubey, Shyam Benegal & Girish Karnad | Bhumika(Hindi) |
| 1977 | Vijay Tendulkar | Manthan(Hindi) |
| 1976 | no award | - |
| 1975 | Satyajit Ray | Sonar Kella(Bengali) |
| 1974 | Mrinal Sen & Ashish Burman | Padatik(Bengali) |
| 1973 | Gulzar | Koshish(Hindi) |
| 1972 | Tapan Sinha | Ekhonee(Bengali) |
| 1971 | Satyajit Ray | Pratidwandi(Bengali) |
| 1970 | Puttanna Kanagal | Gejje Pooje(Kannada) |
| 1969 | Pandit Anand Kumar | Anokhi Raat(Hindi) |
| 1968 | S. L. Puram Sadanandan | Agni Puthri(Malayalam) |
| 1967 | Satyajit Ray | Nayak(Bengali) |