National Film Award for Best Sound Design

The National Film Award for Best Sound Design is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the National Film Development Corporation of India. It is one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus).

National Film Award for Best Sound Design
National award for contributions to Indian Cinema
Sponsored by	National Film Development Corporation of India
Formerly called	Best Sound Recording (1976–1979) Best Audiography (1980–2021)
Reward(s)	Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) ₹2,00,000
First award	1976
Final award	2023
Most recent winner	Sachin Sudhakaran & Hariharan Muralidharan, Animal
Highlights
Total awarded	45 (till 2008) 10 (Location sound recordist) 12 (Sound designer) 15 (Re-recordist of the final mixed track) 1 (since 2022)
First winner	S. P. Ramanathan

The award was instituted in 1976, at 24th National Film Awards and awarded annually for films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages; Hindi (30 awards), Malayalam (15 awards), Bengali (10 awards), Tamil (9 awards), Marathi (5 awards), Telugu, Ladakhi (two each), and Assamese, Sanskrit (one Each).

Since the 57th National Film Awards the award has been sub-categorised into Location sound recordist, Sound designer and Re-recordist of the final mixed track. At the 70th National Film Awards, the award was renamed to Best Sound Design. Two sub-categories Location Sound Recordist and Re-recordist of the Final Mixed Track were discontinued, with only sound designer being eligible to the award.^[1][2] The decision to discontinue the two other sub-categories received some criticism.^[3]

Winners

Awards legends
*	Location Sound Recordist (2009–2021)
*	Sound Designer (2009–2021)
*	Re-recordist of the Final Mixed Track (2009–2021)

Award includes 'Rajat Kamal' (Silver Lotus) and cash prize. Following are the award winners over the years:

List of award recipients, showing the year (award ceremony), film(s), language(s) and citation
Year	Recipient(s)	Film(s)	Language(s)	Refs.
1976 (24th)	S. P. Ramanathan	Bhakta Kannappa	Telugu	[4]
1977 (25th)	S. P. Ramanathan	Godhuli	Hindi	[5]
1978 (26th)	Hitendra Ghosh	Junoon	Hindi	[6]
1979 (27th)	No Award			[7]
1980 (28th)	S. P. Ramanathan	Nenjathai Killathe	Tamil	[8]
1981 (29th)	P. Devdas	Elippathayam	Malayalam	[9]
1982 (30th)	Essabhai M. Suratwala	Namkeen	Hindi	[10]
1983 (31st)	S. P. Ramanathan	Adi Shankaracharya	Sanskrit	[11]
1984 (32nd)	P. Devdas	Mukhamukham	Malayalam	[12]
1985 (33rd)	Hitendra Ghosh	Ek Pal	Hindi	[13]
1986 (34th)	Durga Mitra	Path Bhola	Bengali	[14]
	Jyoti Prasad Chatterjee
1987 (35th)	P. Devadas	Anantaram	Malayalam	[15]
	T. Krishnanunni
	N. Harikumar
1988 (36th)	T. Krishnan Unni	Piravi	Malayalam	[16]
1989 (37th)	N. Harikumar	Mathilukal	Malayalam	[17]
1990 (38th)	N. Pandurangan	Anjali	Tamil	[18]
1991 (39th)	Ajay Munjan	Rukmavati Ki Haveli	Hindi	[19]
	M. M. Padmanabhan
1992 (40th)	N. Pandurangan	Thevar Magan	Tamil	[20]
1993 (41st)	H. Sridhar	Mahanadi	Tamil	[21]
	K. M. Surya Narayan (M/s Media Artiste Pvt. Ltd)
1994 (42nd)	A. S. Laxmi Narayanan	Kaadhalan	Tamil	[22]
	V. S. Murthy
1995 (43rd)	Deepan Chatterji	Kalapani	Malayalam	[23]
		Halo	Hindi
1996 (44th)	Krishnan Unni	Desadanam	Malayalam	[24]
1997 (45th)	Sampath	Ennu Swantham Janakikutty	Malayalam	[25]
1998 (46th)	H. Sridhar	Dil Se..	Hindi	[26]
1999 (47th)	Anup Mukhopadhyay	Uttara	Bengali	[27]
2000 (48th)	Anup Dev	Moksha	Hindi	[28]
2001 (49th)	H. Sridhar	Lagaan	Hindi	[29]
	Nakul Kamte
2002 (50th)	A. S. Laxmi Narayanan	Kannathil Muthamittal	Tamil	[30]
	H. Sridhar
2003 (51st)	Anup Mukhopadhyay	Bhalo Theko	Bengali	[31]
	Deepon Chatterjee
2004 (52nd)	Anup Mukhopadhyay	Iti Srikanta	Bengali	[32]
	Alok De
2005 (53rd)	Nakul Kamte	Rang De Basanti	Hindi	[33]
2006 (54th)	Shajith Koyeri	Omkara	Hindi	[34]
	Subhash Sahoo
	K. J. Singh
2007 (55th)	Kunal Sharma	1971	Hindi	[35]
2008 (56th)	Pramod J. Thomas	Gandha	Marathi	[36]
	Anmol Bhave
2009 (57th)	Subash Sahoo	Kaminey	Hindi	[37]
	Resul Pookutty, Amrit Pritam Dutta	Keralavarma Pazhassiraja	Malayalam
	Anup Dev	3 Idiots	Hindi
2010 (58th)	Kaamod Kharade	Ishqiya	Hindi	[38]
	Subhadeep Sengupta	Chitrasutram	Malayalam
	Debajit Changmai	Ishqiya	Hindi
2011 (59th)	Baylon Fonseca	Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara	Hindi	[39]
	Baylon Fonseca	Game	Hindi
	Hitendra Ghosh	Game	Hindi
2012 (60th)	Radhakrishnan S.	Annayum Rasoolum	Malayalam	[40]
	Anirban Sengupta	Shabdo	Bengali
	Dipankar Chaki
	Alok De	• Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 1  • Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 2	Hindi
	Sinoy Joseph
	Sreejesh Nair
2013 (61st)	Nihar Ranjan Samal	Madras Cafe	Hindi	[41]
	Bishwadeep Chatterjee	Madras Cafe	Hindi
	D. Yuvaraj	Swapaanam	Malayalam
2014 (62nd)	Mahaveer Sabbanwal	Khwada	Marathi	[42]
	Anish John	Asha Jaoar Majhe	Bengali
	Anirban Sengupta	Nirbashito	Bengali
	Dipankar Chaki
2015 (63rd)	Sanjay Kurian	Talvar	Hindi	[43]
	Bishwadeep Chatterjee	Bajirao Mastani	Hindi
	Justin Jose	Bajirao Mastani	Hindi
2016 (64th)	Jayadevan Chakkadath	Kaadu Pookkunna Neram	Malayalam	[44]
	Alok De	Ventilator	Marathi
2017 (65th)	Mallika Das	Village Rockstars	Assamese
	Sanal George	Walking with the Wind	Ladakhi
	Justin Jose	Walking with the Wind	Ladakhi
2018 (66th)	Gaurav Verma	Tendlya	Marathi	[45]
	Bishwadeep Chatterjee	Uri: The Surgical Strike	Hindi
	M. R. Rajakrishnan	Rangasthalam	Telugu
2019 (67th)	Debajit Gayan	Iewduh	Khasi	[46]
	Mandar Kamalapurkar	Trijya	Marathi
	Resul Pookutty	Oththa Seruppu Size 7	Tamil
	Bibin Devassy
2020 (68th)	Anmol Bhave	Me Vasantrao	Marathi	[47]
	Vishnu Govind	Malik	Malayalam
2021 (69th)	Arun Asok, Sonu KP	Chavittu	Malayalam	[48]
	Aneesh Basu	Jhilli	Bengali
	Sinoy Joseph	Sardar Udham	Hindi
2022 (70th)	Anand Krishnamoorthi	Ponniyin Selvan: I	Tamil	[49]
2023 (71st)	Sachin Sudhakaran Hariharan Muralidharan	Animal	Hindi	[50]