Only 21 performances in Hindi films have won the National Award for Best Actor. Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan has won the most number of awards for his performance in films like Agneepath, Black and Paa.
Sanjeev Kumar, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah and Ajay Devgn are the only actors to win 2 awards each.
The iconic trio of Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan have never won a National Award. Shahrukh came close in 2003, but his performance in Swades was overlooked and Saif Ali Khan’s performance in Hum Tum was declared the winner.
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Hrithik Roshan too was expected to win the National Award for his incredible act in Koi Mil Gaya, but Tamil actor Vikram won the award that year for his film Pithamagan.
Aamir has probably been the unluckiest of the lot when it comes to National Awards.
Check out the full list of winners below.
| Year | Actor | Movie |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | Ashok Kumar | Aashirwad |
| 1969 | Utpal Dutt | Bhuvan Shome |
| 1970 | Sanjeev Kumar | Dastak |
| 1972 | Sanjeev Kumar | Koshish |
| 1974 | Sadhu Meher | Ankur |
| 1976 | Mithun Chakraborty | Mrigayaa |
| 1979 | Naseeruddin Shah | Sparsh |
| 1981 | Om Puri | Arohan |
| 1983 | Om Puri | Ardh Satya |
| 1984 | Naseeruddin Shah | Paar |
| 1985 | Shashi Kapoor | New Delhi Times |
| 1990 | Amitabh Bachchan | Agneepath |
| 1994 | Nana Patekar | Krantiveer |
| 1998 | Ajay Devgn | Zakhm |
| 2000 | Anil Kapoor | Pukar |
| 2002 | Ajay Devgn | The Legend of Bhagat Singh |
| 2004 | Saif Ali Khan | Hum Tum |
| 2005 | Amitabh Bachchan | Black |
| 2009 | Amitabh Bachchan | Paa |
| 2012 | Irrfan Khan | Paan Singh Tomar |
| 2013 | Rajkummar Rao | Shahid |
| 2015 | Amitabh Bachchan | Piku |
| 2016 | Akshay Kumar | Rustom |
saif deserves his award foolish srk fans think if he titled his movie swdes so that is enough for him to get award but no i didnt like his acting in swdes. a new face will be more valuble for that film cuz after that movie get hit tag because of low budget .
I don’t know why people are so much obsessed with national award. It is more fraud and currupt than every other award. Following award never deserved
Amitabh – agneepath overacting (panned by most critics at that time)
Sunny – ghayal (which is ott and nothing special othan masala, if yes them salman too deserves for dabang)
Anil kapoor- (if actor considers only for patriotic role then chiranjivee should have for pratinandh and akshay for baby)
Saif- less says better
Following actors royally snubbed by national award juries
1. Sanjay datt ( vastav)
2. Srk (darr, swades, cdi, MNIK)
3. Amir (lagaan, sarfarosh)
4. Hritik (koi mil Gaya)
5. Amitabh bachchan (deewar)
indicine, why did u not include mithun. many people thinks mithun is not good actor while he won two national award for mrigya and swami vivekanand.
@FTK what a joke. Hahahaha………. i can’t stop my laughter hahahaha………
This year best actor award have to be won by shahid kapoor , he is more deserving.
Big B rocks . But Hrithik really deserved it for Guzaarish , Lakshya , Jodha Akbar , etc……….
This is a brilliant article by Indicine . National Awards are undoubtedly the Biggest Awards in India . According to me the Actors missing this list are Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar . According to me Aamir deserved National Award for Lagaan and Best Supporting Actor for TZP . SRK deserved the Award for CDI . I have not seen Swades completely so i cannot say about that . Hrithik deserved for KMG and Guzaarish . Akshay was exceptional in Baby so let us see whether he gets this time or not ?
hamtum saif in 2004..if jury has decided to give it to bollywood actor – than i dont think srk for swades is matched by any other that year.
saif – my foot.
srk for chak de also deserved it.
its fine.it happens.
@saksham it’s always worth reading your comments. But this time , i am shocked !!,
what made you think that Akshay should get a national award for baby!! It’s “best actor” award mate.
What are the acting sequences you find that deserved a national award. Have you noticed two or three different facial or vocal expression of him in that movie. Movie was ok and his performance was good. That doesn’t mean he should have win NA.
you don’t have to please anyone ….do you…
HR deserves for Agneepath Jodha Akbar D2 & BB he was fabu.
Shahid deserve for haider, kaminey and jab we met.
I’m really glad that I’m big fan of Ajay who won 2 national awards and he is the only superstar today who achieved that honor. woow this is overwhelming to me. congrats AJ.
hope Drishyam remake becomes big hit.
Akshay for baby next year. Mark my words
If any national jury will even try to give that award in free to MY KING,then also I will say these 2rs national awards has no worth.such a cheap,2rsbkind award it is!yeah believe me it’s worth is not a bit more than 2rs.
this chief awards given to mahacrapiest south films and it’ s non actors.did south films have a proper high class cinematography?did their actor can ACT?
kindly see above the list,the numerous uno movie of 2014—-HAIDER and SHAHID & TABU isn’t in the list!same happened with SWADES!!!!!even in 1999,IT’S KING KHAN’S ‘DIL SE’ performance is far better than ajay’s performance in zakhm.but it’s the national jurya always had problem with KING KHAN and FILMFARE.
this crap national jury’s didn’t gave awards to films like DARR,BAAZIGAR,ANJAAM,DIL SE,VZ,DEVDAS,PAHELI,SWADES,CDI,MNIK.rather gave these awards to some crapiest mindless masala movies like aparichit and many such 2rs cheapest movies.
That’s why IT’S FILMFARE called THE MOTHER OF ALL INDIAN FILM AWARDS.further I am requesting to Honorable National jurys kindly don’t take Bollywood films into their consideration because you’re not deserving to rate any Bollywood movies.the crap your jury’s are the cheapest and crapiest your awards are!be happy with your 2rs south south masala craps/Bengali overacting movies because that’s what you worth.
It’s undoubtedly Vishal sir deserving for best music,dialogue also choreography also deserved the same.but once again you showed your real face!!!!!
Said deserved award for Hum Tum even though it was Ranis movie to me as she was adorable but Saif was more deserving than our King in Swades -which was a yawnafest affair.
Anilji deserved his award for Pukar despite some not so smart wannabe critics belief….
Big B deserved more awards for sure and Aamir deserved atleast one but in all fairness we cant complain as some of our performance actors have got due recognition over the yrs- well done to the Naseeruddin, Om Puri and Nana Patekars…!
Just for the record after looking back at the list of films actors got awards for I must say the only film I have seen on there last was Paa (which due to Abhishek was crap n boring) and then Black (which I found appalling) and before that there was Hum Tum (Rani was gawjus) and Bhagat Singh. Only Bhagat Singh for me was the best film of last 20 yrs ahead of Pukar and Zakhm but Krantiveer 1994 was the best of the lot if we analyse all the movies over last 30 yrs.
PS movies from early 80’s and before I havent seen so cant judge them.
wtf to selection committee of national awards. i cant believed that Aamir khan didn’t get a sinlge national award despite having great movies with great,appreciating performances like sarfarosh, rangeela, 1947,mangal pandey, lagaan, RDB, TZP, 3idt, pk and saif got for hum tum waah yar selection committee tum logo ka koi jawab nhi tum ko to Guinness books me hona chaiye
aamir deserved for lagaan ,sarfarosh and raja hindustani
shahrukh deserved for swades and chak de india
hrithik deserved for koi mil gaya
@babaji, i am shocked too with your actor’s national awards comment. and same time it’s funny too..
I thought you have some knowledge about bollywood and actors achievements.But look like you started watching movies from 3I.
and the funny part is you included Akshay !!!!
first think about star,Zee, ..etc…then dream about filmfare,…then simply forget about NA….
It is shocking to c only one superstar in list, good to c AD in list with 2 awards telling about his acting talent.BigB is in different league.
National Award for Hum Tum??? Is this a joke???
Who was selecting all this nonsense in the last years?? At least now movies were taken what are really deserving the National Award! Unfortunately SRK and Aamir Khan didn’t got anyone….at least Swadesh or Lagaan should have been worked out for them! Very sad…..also that Shahid Kapoor was not getting the award this year for Haider….sad !!!
Very unfair with shahrukh for swades
Good to see it’s amir fans are saying national award has no worth who someday before were arguing with me about it’s importance.except jjws/lagaan and tzp non of a single of amir deserve any awards because his acting performance is not up to mark and he is the Leonardo nooscario of Bollywood.
@satya Siba sabat
Really? What about Earth, Raakh (where he won national award in critics category) Sarfarosh, Dil Chahta Hai?
SRK deserves for DDLJ
Big B aka Sir Amitabh Bachchan is clearly way ahead than these modern day Superstars like : the Khan trio (Salman , SRK , Aamir) , Hrithik Roshan , Akshay Kumar , Ajay Devgn . His acting performances in Agneepath and Black were really heartouching and were very excellent performances . I heard that Aamir Khan once criticized Big B’s performance in Black and called it overrated and too loud lol let me tell you Aamir , your acting in Rang De Basanti , Lagaan , 3 Idiots , Taare Zameen Par was not good but your films have worked in the past just because they delivered some exceptional excellent messages but that doesn’t mean that it was also your performances in those films that is remembered but 50% credit in your movies (Lagaan , and Rang De Basanti) goes to AR Rahman’s music and 50% for the message but your performance was not that exceptional . People remember Black (2005 Hindi Movie) just due to Amitabh’s performance whereas Rang De was mostly remembered due to it’s message that was delivered in the film . Big B can even make his performance get appreciated in some of the average bad films starring himself in films like : Black , Cheeni Kum , RGV Ki Aag , etc ……….. whereas people still remember Aamir’s hamming overact performance in the film Tum Mere Ho which was very very pain . Big B is a better actor than Mr Script Dependent Aamir Khan .
After performance in baby and airlift . akshay Kumar should have getting at least one national award for best actor category. he is one of the finest roll model of our country and one of the hard working celebrity. this time he truly deserving for this….