The National Film Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (known as National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress prior to 69th NFA) is an honour presented annually at India's National Film Awards ceremony by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), an organisation set up by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.[1] Since 1984, the award is given by a national panel appointed annually by the NFDC to an actress for the best performance in a supporting role within Indian cinema.[1][2] It is presented by the President of India at a ceremony held in New Delhi.[3] Since the 70th National Film Awards, the name was changed to "Best Actress in a Supporting Role".[4]
The winner is given a "Rajat Kamal" (Silver Lotus) certificate and a cash prize of ₹2,00,000.[a] Including ties and repeat winners, the NFDC has presented a total of 41 Best Supporting Actress awards to 35 different actresses. Although Indian cinema produces films in more than 20 languages,[1] the performances of films that have won awards are of ten languages: Hindi (19 awards), Malayalam (7 awards), Bengali (4 awards), Tamil (4 awards), English (2 awards), Meitei (1 award), Marathi (1 award), Urdu (1 award), Haryanvi (1 award), Odia (1 award).
^The reference cites the winner and the role played by them in the film. While there are some sources that are written in both English and Hindi, other references are entirely in Hindi.
^"65th National Film Awards"(PDF) (Press release). Directorate of Film Festivals. p. 21. Archived from the original(PDF) on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2017.