At the 59th National Awards announced in New Delhi on Wednesday, Chillar Party, Salman Khan’s maiden venture into film production (co-produced with Ronnie Screwvala), was named the best children’s film.The film was directed by Nitesh Tiwari and Vikas Bahl. It starred a number of child artists in the story of a street waif and a dog who befriend the school-going kids of a housing society.
The child actors from the film were also honoured with Best Child Artiste award along with Partho Gupte for Stanley Ka Dabba.
The child artists from the film Chillar Party who won the award are Irfan Khan, Aarav Khanna, Rohan Grover, Nama Jain, Vedant Desai, Sanath Menon, Divij Handa, Vishesh Tiwari and Chinmai Chandransuh.
Chillar Party also won the prestigious award for the best original screenplay for writers Nitesh Tiwari, Vijay Maurya and Vikas Bahl.
Meanwhile, the National Award for the best film on social issues is shared by two films this year: Ashvin Kumar's Inshallah Football and Arun Chadha's Mindscape. While Inshallah Football is about a Kashmiri child’s dream to play football, Mindscape is about the subject of intimacy and sexuality among the differently-abled people.