India’s most prestigious film honours are no longer meant to stay locked inside a capital-city auditorium. On Tuesday, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the National Film Awards will now travel to some of the country’s finest tourist destinations, turning a traditional awards night into a nationwide showcase of cinema and place.
The announcement came on the same day the 72nd National Film Awards were presented at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat’s Narmada district — the first time in decades that the ceremony has been held outside New Delhi. President Droupadi Murmu conferred the honours against the backdrop of the Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue and the monument that has made Ekta Nagar a global tourist draw.
Vaishnaw framed the shift as more than a change of venue. “We are taking the National Film Awards to the best tourist destinations in the country, inspired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi,” he told reporters. The idea, he said, is to take the awards “beyond a conference room” and closer to people, while using the gathering of India’s film fraternity to put destinations on a larger stage.
Why Ekta Nagar was the opening act
Ekta Nagar, earlier known as Kevadia, has been built around the 182-metre Statue of Unity dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The minister argued that when the President of India and leading actors, directors and technicians arrive at such a site, the destination itself becomes part of the story. More people, he said, get a reason to know the place, visit it, and remember it.
That logic also borrows from a recent government playbook. Vaishnaw recalled how G20 events under Prime Minister Narendra Modi were taken out of a single city and hosted across states. The National Film Awards, he suggested, should follow a similar thought: national occasions should travel, and film and tourism should work together rather than remain separate silos.
For decades, the awards ceremony was closely associated with New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan. Moving it to a tourist complex — complete with a specially erected venue near the statue — is meant to signal that the honours belong to the country, not only to the capital.
States invited to bid for the next show
The Centre is now opening the process to every state. Vaishnaw invited governments to propose their best tourism destinations for future editions of the National Film Awards. A proposal, he said, should not stop at naming a pretty location. It must show that the site can host a high-profile national event and must include a plan for 360-degree development of the destination.
In practical terms, that means facilities, access, hospitality, infrastructure and a broader upgrade plan — not just a stage for one evening. The state whose proposal is selected will host a subsequent National Film Awards ceremony at the proposed site.
The pitch is simple: if cinema’s biggest official night arrives in a hill town, a coastal city, a heritage circuit or a newly developed destination, both sides gain. The awards leave the closed hall. The destination gets national attention, celebrity footfall and a reason to improve itself.
Cinema as a tourism engine
India has long talked about film tourism — the idea that movies can sell landscapes as powerfully as any brochure. Tuesday’s announcement tries to reverse the usual flow. Instead of waiting for a film to make a location famous, the government wants the awards themselves to become the camera that points at a place.
Vaishnaw’s argument is that the National Film Awards already bring together actors, cinematographers, technicians and storytellers from across languages and industries. Park that gathering at a real destination, and the destination inherits the spotlight. Do it year after year in different states, and the awards become a travelling festival of Indian cinema rather than an annual Delhi appointment.
Whether states respond with ambitious bids — and whether future ceremonies can match the scale of a presidential awards night without losing their dignity — will decide if this remains a one-off Gujarat experiment or becomes a new national format.
For now, the message from Ekta Nagar is clear. India’s films have always travelled. The government wants the awards that honour them to travel too.