The National Awards were established by the government of India in 1954. Since 1973, the award ceremonies are administrated by the Indian government’s Directorate of Film Festival.The awards were introduced to honor and encourage the films directed across India featuring Indian art and culture. Each year national panel is appointed by the government which selects the winning entry for the year. All the award ceremonies are held in New Delhi and the President of India hands out the awards to the winners. The ‘Best Screenplay’ award is one of the sub-categories of Silver Lotus Award which was introduced in the year 1967. The inaugural award was presented to Satyajit Ray for the movie ‘Nayak’. The movie was released in the US as Nayak: The Hero in 1966. This film was Ray's second entirely original screenplay. The movie is all about a matinee idol on a cross-country train journey who is placed in the centre of various psychodramas unfolding mostly among wealthy characters.

The Winners For Silver Lotus Best Screenplay Award Are:

Year
Screenplay Writer
Film
Language
2009
Sachin Kundalkar
Gandha
Marathi
2008
Feroz Abbas Khan
Gandhi, My Father
Hindi
2007
Abhijat Joshi,Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Lage Raho Munna Bhai
Hindi
2006
Prakash Jha,Manoj Tyagi & Shridhar Raghavan
Apaharan
Hindi
2005
Manoj Tyagi & Nina Arora
Page 3
Hindi
2004
Gautam Ghose
Abar Aranye
Bengali
2003
Aparna Sen
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer
English
2002
Neelakanta
Show
Telugu
2001
Bharathiraja
Kadal Pookkal
Tamil
2000
Madampu Kunjukuttan
Karunam
Malayalam
1999
Ashok Mishra
Samar
Hindi
1998
Rituparno Ghosh
Dahan
Bengali
1997
Agathyan
Kadhal Kottai
Tamil
1996
Saeed Akhtar Mirza & Ashok Mishra
Naseem
Hindi
1995
M.T. Vasudevan Nair
Parinayam
Malayalam
1994
Satyajit Ray
Uttoran
Bengali
1993
M.T. Vasudevan Nair
Sadayam
Malayalam
1992
M.T. Vasudevan Nair
Kadavu
Malayalam
1991
K.S. Sethu Madhavan
Marupakkam
Tamil
1990
M.T. Vasudevan Nair
Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha
Malayalam
1989
Arundhati Roy
In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones
English
1988
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Anantharam
Malayalam
1987
Budhdhadeb Dasgupta
Phera
Bengali
1986
Bhabendra Nath Saikia
Agni Snaan
Assamese
1985
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Mukhamukham
Malayalam
1984
G V Iyer
Adi Shankaracharya
Sanskrit
1983
Mrinal Sen
Kharij
Bengali
1982
K. Balachander
Thanneer Thanneer
Tamil
1981
Mrinal Sen
Akaler Sandhane
Bengali
1980
Sai Paranjpye
Sparsh
Hindi
1979
T.S. Ranga &T.S. Nagabharana
Grahana
Kannada
1978
Satyadev Dubey, Shyam Benegal & Girish Karnad
Bhumika
Hindi
1977
Vijay Tendulkar
Manthan
Hindi
1976
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1975
Satyajit Ray
Sonar Kella
Bengali
1974
Mrinal Sen & Ashish Burman
Padatik
Bengali
1973
Gulzar
Koshish
Hindi
1972
Tapan Sinha
Ekhonee
Bengali
1971
Satyajit Ray
Pratidwandi
Bengali
1970
Puttanna Kanagal
Gejje Pooje
Kannada
1969
Pandit Anand Kumar
Anokhi Raat
Hindi
1968
S. L. Puram Sadanandan
Agni Puthri
Malayalam
1967
Satyajit Ray
Nayak
Bengali