After being delayed by nearly a year because of court cases, the National Film Awards for 2005 were announced on Tuesday.

It was an occasion to cherish for Tamil cinema as the national award for Best Special Effects has been won by Tata Elexi for the film Anniyan, Best Music Director award for Lalgudi Jayaraman for Sringaram, the Best Cinematography Award has been bagged by Madhu Ambat for Sringaram and choreographer Saroj Khan getting the Best Choreography award for Sringaram again.

The movie Sringaram- Dance of Love is based on the Devadasi tradition and Bharatanatyam, the most popular classical dance of India. Produced by Golden Square Films Private Limited, the movie is directed by Sharada Ramanathan and cinematography is Madhu Ambat. The music for this movie has been composed by the legendary Padmabhushan Lagudi Jayaraman. This is the first time that the legend has directed the music for a movie.

The award for Best Film on Family Welfare was bagged by Cheran's Thavamai Thavamirunthu. Popular playback singer Naresh Iyer was chosen the Best Male Playback Singer for Rang De Basanti, which has musical score by A R Rahman.

The Aamir Khan-starrer Rang De Basanti has been declared the Best Popular Film providing Wholesome Entertainment and the Best Actor award has gone to Amitabh Bachchan for the Hindi film 'Black' and the Best Actress award to Sarika for her role in the English film Parzania. Its director, Rahul Dholakia, also got the Best Direction Award.