Cinema VinesAt the 72nd National Film Awards ceremony held on Tuesday in Ekta Nagar, Gujarat, actress Yami Gautam received her first National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 2024 political action thriller Article 370. The award was presented by President Droupadi Murmu, and Yami’s husband, filmmaker Aditya Dhar, watched the moment from the audience.
Walking onto the stage with a smile, Yami greeted the crowd with a traditional namaste before accepting the trophy. In her acceptance speech, she expressed how proud and honoured she felt, noting that the recognition was a significant milestone for any artist who has devoted their life to the craft.
During the ceremony, Yami addressed aspiring actors who travel to Mumbai each year with dreams of making it big. She urged them to keep working hard and producing good work, assuring them that success would eventually come: “You keep working hard, keep doing good work, and one day, this will happen for sure.”
She also reflected on her own journey, saying that she still has a lot to learn and many roles to take on. In Hindi, she added, “I don’t know where I have reached. I have a lot to learn in my journey, lots of work to do. This is such a big honour in itself, and to receive it at a place with so much history is a matter of pride.”
Article 370, directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale and produced by Jyoti Deshpande, Aditya Dhar and Lokesh Dhar, is inspired by true events and follows the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019. Yami portrayed an intelligence officer in the film, which has been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.
