National Film Awards 2022: 'Toolsidas Junior,' story of snooker player bags Best Hindi Film

Toolsidas Junior, a film based on it's director's life Mridul won the best hindi film award at the National Film Awards 2022 on Friday (July 22). The film was based on a real life story of Mridul Mahendra (director). Notably, it was legendary actor Rajiv Kapoor's last movie, he died in February 2021 before the film was released. Toolsidas Junior also had star cast of Sanjay Dutt and Varun Buddhadev.

The film shows how the young Toolsidas Junior tries to reclaim his father's glory by winning a snooker tournament. Rajiv Kapoor played Mridul's father role, which was a comeback of the legendary actor into the industry after almost three decades. Varun on the other hand played a supporting role.

The movie however was not released on the big screen, but it receiving the huge honour of the National Film Awards 2022 shows that it had potential to catch a wider audience on the big screen. The film was streamed on Netflix.

68th National #Film Awards:

- Best Hindi film: #ToolsidasJunior
- Best Feature Film: #SooraraiPottru (Tamil)
- Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment: '#Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior'#NationalFilmAwards #nationalfilawards2022 #ajaydevgn #suriya #sooraraipottru pic.twitter.com/IlkKJiV9I9 — Movies wallah (@Movies_Wallah) July 22, 2022

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt made a strong statement to Etimes about the film not being released on the bigscreen saying, "I will never forgive Mr Ashutosh Gowarikar and T-Series for them to release it on OTT, they should have waited and seen it on big screen."

Apart from that, the South film 'Soorarai Pottru' received the National award for the best feature film in the Tamil language.Based on true incidents, 'Soorarai Pottru' starred actors Suriya and Paresh Rawal in the lead roles and gathered a massive response from the netizens.Directed by Sudha Kongara, the film is currently gearing up for its Hindi remake, which stars Akshay Kumar and Radhika Madan in the lead roles.

The film was made available for screening at the 93rd Academy Awards but was not nominated. Meanwhile, the National Award for the best popular film for providing wholesome entertainment goes to Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, and Kajol-starrer 'Tanhaji: The unsung warrior'. Apart from that, Ajay Devgn and south actor Suriya received the 'Best Actor' award for their performance in 'Tanhaji' and 'Soorarai Pottru'. (With ANI inputs)