The 65th National Film Awards was attended by only a handful of winners on Thursday evening. The others were at the hotel or had returned to their respective homes after their protest against the organisers fell on deaf ears.

President Ram Nath Kovind attended the prestigious ceremony for only an hour, during which he gave out 11 National Film Awards including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

120 winners out of the 131 wrote to Chaitanya Prasad, the additional director general of the Directorate of Film Festivals and the office of the President of India and the Information and Broadcast Ministry, saying that they were not attending the 65th National Awards ceremony.

The winners also signed a petition for the same, mentioning that they felt "dejected rather than honoured for our work".

It was only last evening that the National Award winners were informed that President Ram Nath Kovind would personally give out only 11 awards out of the 131, and that he would attend the event for only an hour.

This left the National Award winners, who travelled from across the country to receive the honour, with a bitter taste in the mouth.

The letter reads, "We write to you collectively as filmmakers and artists from various states across our country. We are recipients of the 65th National Film Awards, an honour that we consider as the most eminent token of appreciation and encouragement for our work. We have been invited for this esteemed ceremony with a letter stating that the awards will be presented to us by the Hon'ble President of India. We along with our family and friends have been eagerly looking forward to this prestigious moment that merits our tireless work and dedication towards our dreams.

"It is only a day before the ceremony that we have learnt through Mr Chaitanya Prasad that a large segment of the awards will not be presented by the Hon'ble President of India. It feels like a breach of trust when an institution/ceremony that abides by extreme protocol fails to inform us of such a vital aspect of the ceremony with a prior notice. It seems unfortunate that 65 years of tradition are being overturned in a jiffy. We as filmmakers and artists put in all that we have and tenaciously stick to our dreams in a field of work where appreciation does not come easy. We are disheartened to know that we will be deprived of the honour of this appreciation of a once in a lifetime moment of pride and glory that the National Film Awards had promised us.

The letter from the winners

"The National Film Awards unlike other award ceremony has been considered as the most pristine and unbiased. We request that the dignity and eminence of this award is maintained and that there is no display of hierarchy at the event. We are disappointed to know that the Hon'ble President will be presenting the award to just 11 awardees and not the remaining of about 120 of us. We would like to bring to your notice that we discussed this matter with the Hon'ble I&B Minister last evening and were promised a reply but haven't heard back from anybody. We are left with no choice but to express our disappointment and convey to you that at the end of the day we feel dejected rather than honoured for our work.

"In the circumstance of not receiving a response for our grievance we are left with no option but to be absent for the ceremony. We do not intend to boycott the award but are not attending the ceremony to convey our discontent and are awaiting a more just solution."

The National Awards ceremony was held at the Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi on Thursday afternoon.

The event saw two posthumous awards; the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for Vinod Khanna and the Best Actress Award for Sridevi. In his speech at the ceremony, Presiednt Kovind said that Sridevi and Vinod Khanna will be remembered forever.

The President also hailed the transcendental power of cinema and said that one did not need to know a language to appreciate the magic of movies.

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ALSO SEE: National Awards 2018 full winners list