The country’s oldest National Film Awards were established in 1954. From 1973, the awards are administrated by the Indian government’s Directorate of Film Festivals. The awards were introduced to honor films directed across India which feature Indian art and culture. The government appoints a national panel each year to select the winning entry. The awards are handed out by the President of India to the winners for the year. The ‘Best Non-Feature Film Music Direction’ award is one of the sub-categories of Non-Feature Film awards and was introduced in 1996. The inaugural award was bagged by Shubha Mudgal for the film ‘Amrit Beej’. She is a well known Hindustani classical music singer and was honored with Gold Plaque Award for Special Achievement in Music in 1998 and Padma Shri in 2000.

National Award Winners For Best Non-Feature Film Music Direction Are:

Year
Composer
Film
Language
2003
Raja Mitra
Kalighat Paintings and Drawings
English
2002
Bhaskar Chandavarkar
Chaitra
Marathi
2001
Usha Khanna
Ajeeb Gha
Hindi
1999
Biswadeb Dasgupta
A Painter of Eloquent Silence
English
1996
Shubha Mudgal
Amrit Beej
Hindi