70th National Film Awards: Mammootty and Rishab Shetty front-runners for Best Actor?

The 70th National Film Awards, which will honour the best Indian cinema of 2022, are set to be announced this month, with the felicitation to be held in October. Films – feature and non-feature – that were censored between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022, are in contention for the National Awards.

2022 was the year of KGF: Chapter 2 and Kantara and if the rumour mill is to be believed, Rishab Shetty, the actor and director of Kantara is in contention for the prestigious Best Actor Award. Produced by Hombale Films, Kantara had caught the fancy of the nation, and had been dubbed divine hit, based on the last 15-20 minutes of the film. Such was the success of Kantara, that Rishab then announced that his next directorial would be a prequel, Kantara: Chapter 1, which is currently on floors. The film is being shot at closed sets in Kundapura and surrounding areas, with absolutely no information out in the public sphere.

Rishab’s biggest competition for the Best Actor title is Malayalam superstar Mammootty, who has 2 films with award possibilities. While his home production Rorschach was a 2022 theatrical release, Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, which premiered at the International Film Festival of Kerala in December 2022 and then came to theatres in early 2023, is the other title that the jury is looking at earnestly. Mammootty has already won the Kerala State Film Awards Best Actor for the Lijo Jose Pellissery directorial.

Should Mammootty be adjudged Best Actor at the 70th National Film Awards, it will be the fourth time in the 73-year-old actor’s career. He won in 1989 for Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha and Mathilukal; in 1994 for Vidheyan and Ponthan Mada and in 1989 for Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Rishab, on the other hand, has not had any acting accolades prior to Kantara. As director, though, he has won the Karnataka State Film Award twice, first for Kirik Party and then for Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shale Kasaragode. In fact, Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shale also got Rishab a National Award, with the film winning the prestigious Golden Lotus for Best Children’s Film.