[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.

[4] The winner is given a "Rajat Kamal" (Silver Lotus) certificate and a cash prize of ₹2,00,000.

[7] As of 2022[update] edition, Surekha Sikri have been honoured thrice for her Hindi films – Tamas (1987), Mammo (1994) and Badhaai Ho (2018).

[8] K. P. A. C. Lalitha won the award two times for her work in the Malayalam films Amaram (1990) and Shantham (2000)[9] along with Pallavi Joshi for her work in Hindi films The Tashkent Files (2019) and The Kashmir Files (2021).

Egyptian actress Aida El-Kashef, who was honoured at the 61st National Film Awards for her performance in the English-Hindi film Ship of Theseus (2013) is the only non-Indian actress to win the award.