21st National Film Awards

The 21st National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1973. Ceremony took place in October 1974 and awards were given by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Juries

Prior to 21st National Film Awards, there used to be regional committees at Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta (Kolkata) and Madras (Chennai), the recommendations of which were then considered by central committee. To avoid this long-winded process, regional committees were discarded.

Two different committees were formed for feature films and short films, headed by Romesh Thapar and S. K. Kooka respectively.

Jury Members: Feature Films
- Romesh Thapar (Chairperson) • Usha Bhagat • Teji Bachchan • Ismat Chughtai • M. Yunus Dehlvi • Ashis Burman
- Firoze Rangoonwalla • Dina Pathak • B. V. Karanth • T. S. Pillai • T. K. Mahadevan • J. Swaminathan
- Dileep Padgaonkar • Subodh Mukherjee • U. Visweswar Raw • Asim Paul • Tarun Majumdar • Ananta Patnaik
- Illindula Saraswathi Devi • M. Bhaktavatsala • Sai Paranjpye • K. R. K. Menon • O. V. Vijayan
Jury Members: Short Films
- S. K. Kooka (Chairperson) • Balwant Gargi • Nalni Soni • Komal Kothari

Awards

Awards were divided into feature films and non-feature films.

President's gold medal for the All India Best Feature Film is now better known as National Film Award for Best Feature Film, whereas President's gold medal for the Best Documentary Film is analogous to today's National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film. For children's films, Prime Minister's gold medal is now given as National Film Award for Best Children's Film. At the regional level, President's silver medal for Best Feature Film is now given as National Film Award for Best Feature Film in a particular language. Certificate of Merit in all the categories is discontinued over the years.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Feature films

Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 21st National Film Awards, a Malayalam film Nirmalyam won the President's gold medal for the All India Best Feature Film; whereas a Bengali film Ashani Sanket and a Kannada film Kaadu won the maximum number of awards (three). Following were the awards given in each category:

All India Award

Following were the awards given:

Regional Award

The awards were given to the best films made in the regional languages of India. For feature films in English, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Meitei, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi and Telugu language, President's silver medal for Best Feature Film was not given. The producer of the film was awarded with a silver medal and ₹10,000, the director of the film was awarded with a silver medal and ₹5,000, and leading actors were awarded with a souvenir.