Over the period of time Southern films evolved in standards and uniqueness with a touch of reality. This has lead to a major sweep of awards at the 58th National Film Awards.

The 58th edition of National Film Awards was presented by President Pratibha Patil at the Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi on the Friday. The awards function was hosted by actors Mahie Gill and Rajat Kapoor.

The 81-year-old writer-director-producer K. Balachander was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award by President. He had directed nearly 80 films in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi in his career and launched the careers of Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth. The President described him as a film-maker of distinction.

Big winners included Tamil actor Dhanush and Malayalam actor Salim Kumar who shared the prestigious Best Actor award.

Best Actress award was jointly awarded to Marathi actress Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar for Baboo Band Baaja and Tamil actress Saranya Ponvannan Thenmerkku Paruvakkatru.

Hindi cinema's big award came from Dabangg, starring Salman Khan. Dabangg picked up the award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Husband-wife music-makers Rekha Bhardwaj and Vishal Bhardwaj won an award each for Best Female Playback Singer and Best Music Direction for Ishqiya.

Malayalam film Adaminte Makan Abu bagged the Swarna Kalam for the best feature film. For the same film, versatile Malayalam actor Salim Kumar collected the Rajat Kamal. It was a proud moment for director Vetri Maaran as Tamil film Aadukalam bagged six awards.

The Rajnikanth starrer Enthiran bagged two awards for Best Special Effects for Srinivas Mohan and Best Production Design for Sabu Cyril. Twenty-three films were awarded in the feature film category.