Before Alia Bhatt and Kriti Sanon, here are the other times National Film Awards served a tie in the leading actors categories

On Thursday, as the winners of 69th National Film Awards were announced, Alia Bhatt and Kriti Sanon had a tie win in the Best Actress category. While Alia won for Gangubai Kathiawadi, Kriti was awarded for her act in Mimi. It also marked the 4th incident of a tie in the Best Actress category. Whereas in the Best Actor award, a tie has happened 8 times. Ayushmann Khurrana, Vicky Kaushal, Ajay Devgn, RajKummar Rao amongst others have had a tie win at the National Film Awards.

Here are the other 12 times National Film Awards served a tie win :

Best Actor

1997: The first time a tie happened in the Best Actor category, it was in the year 1997. The two winners that year were Balachandra Menon for the Malayalam film Samaantharangal and Suresh Gopi for another Malayalam film Kaliyattam.

1998: The following year too, the Best Actor category saw a tie. This time it was Ajay Devgn who got his first National Award for Zakhm. He shared the honour with South superstar Mammootty who won it for his eponymous role in the English language film Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

2010: The next tie happened after almost a decade. Dhanush shared his win for Tamil film Aadukalam with Salim Kumar who won it for the Malayalam film Adaminte Makan Abu.

2012: Irrfan Khan tied his Best Actor win for Paan Singh Tomar with Vikram Gokhale who won it for Marathi film Anumati.

2013: The following year too saw a tie between RajKummar Rao and Suraj Venjaramoodu. While Raj won it for Shahid, Suraj got the award for Malayalam film Perariyathavar.

2018: The 6th tie in the category happened in 2018 when Ayushmann Khurrana and Vicky Kaushal shared the honour. Ayushmann won it for Andhadhun while Vicky got it for Uri: The Surgical Strike.

2019: Next year too, a tie was served between Manoj Bajpayee and Dhanush. The former got it for Bhonsle, the latter won for Tamil film Asuran.

2020: For a straight third year, Best Actor category saw a tied win in 2020. Suriya won for his role in Soorarai Pottru, while Ajay got his third National Award for Tanhaji: The Unsung Hero.

Best Actress

1997: Just like the Best Actor category, Best Actress also had its first tie in 1997. Bengali actresses Indrani Haldar and Rituparna Sengupta shared the honour for their film Dahan.

2001: The next tie happened 4 years later when Tabu won for Chandni Bar. She shared her prize with Shobana who won for the English language film Mitr, My Friend.

2010: Just like 1997, 2010 also was similar as both the Best Actor and Actress categories saw a tied win. Mitali Jagtap Varadkar was the first winner for Marathi film Baboo Band Baaja. While Saranya Ponvannan won for Tamil film Thenmerku Paruvakaatru.

2021: With Alia winning for Gangubai Kathiawadi and Kriti winning for Mimi, this marked the 4th tie incident for the category.

Also Read: 69th National Film Awards: Alia Bhatt, Kriti Sanon share their first Best Actress win