National Film Award for Best Direction

[1] Since 1967, the award is given by a national panel appointed annually by the NFDC to a director for their work within Indian cinema.

[1][2] The winner is given a "Swarna Kamal" (Golden Lotus) certificate and a cash prize of ₹3,00,000.

[a] Including ties and repeat winners, the NFDC has presented a total of 53 Best Direction awards to 34 different directors.

[9] Adoor Gopalakrishnan has won 5 awards, which includes his debut Malayalam film Swayamvaram (1972).

He is also the only recipient to win the award for directing films in two different languages: Bengali and Hindi.

A painting of Ray
Satyajit Ray is the most frequent recipient with six wins.
An image of Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Adoor Gopalakrishnan has received the honour five times.
An image of Mrinal Sen
Mrinal Sen has been awarded four times.
an image of Aparna Sen
Aparna Sen is the only woman director honored by this award.