Finally the National Film Awards were announced by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry yesterday. Amitabh Bachchan and Sarika have walked away with the top honours. In fact, this year Bollywood has featured prominently in the awards. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it's almost a clean sweep by the Hindi film industry.

It's good news for the Hindi film industry as the Big B has won the National Award for Best Actor Male for his role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black. The award for Best Actress was bagged by Sarika for her role in Parzania, directed by Bharat Dholakia. The director too was given an award. There was more good news for Bollywood as Naseeruddin Shah won the Best Supporting Actor Award for his role in Iqbal and Anupam Kher won the Special Jury Award for his role in Jhanu Barua's Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara. Vishal Bharadwaj's Blue Umbrella has won the Swarna Kamal for the best children's film. The Indira Gandhi Award for best first film of a director went to Pradeep Sarkar for Parineeta. Rang De Basanti won for the best wholesome entertainer. And there's more. The best male playback singer was won by Naresh Iyer for Roo Ba Roo (Rang De Basanti) and Shreya Ghosal for Paheli (Apne Ansoo Peena Ke Liye). Black featured in another award for the best Hindi feature film of the year.