Boney, Jahnvi, Khushi accept Sridevi's National Award

The action came alive in New Delhi.

The 65th National Awards was marked by unique controversy.

50 of the 125 awardees stayed away from the awards ceremony in protest over the President's decision to present only a few awards than all the awards as previous Rashtrapatis have done.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore -- the previous I&B minister, and currently, the minister of youth affairs and sports -- gave away the initial awards at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi, May 3, 2018.

President Ram Nath Kovind arrived later to present 11 awards.

Scenes from the awards ceremony:

Boney Kapoor and his daughters Janhvi and Khushi accept Sridevi's posthumous Best Actress honour for Mom.

"I wish she was here," Boney told PTI later. "She truly deserved this award. It is so unfortunate that she is not here with us today to celebrate. It is a proud moment for all of us, but sadly she is not here."

"I want to thank the jury and the Government of India for recognising the hard work my mother has done. It is very special for us as a family," Janhvi added.

WATCH: Boney Kapoor and his daughters accept Sridevi's posthumous Best Actress honour.

Vinod Khanna's posthumous Dadasaheb Phalke Award, accepted by his wife Kavita Khanna and his son Akshaye Khanna.

A R Rahman won up two awards -- Best Music Direction for Kaatru Veliyidai as well as Background Score for Mom.

Pankaj Tripathi won a Special Mention for his portrayal of cynical CRPF officer Atma Singh in Newton.

Divya Dutta accepts the Best Supporting Actress Award for role in Irada.

The Best Female Playback Singer Award was presented to Sashaa Tripathi for Vaan Varuvam in the Tamil film, Kaatru Veliyadi.

Riddhi Sen bags the Best Actor award for the Bengali film, Nagarkirtan. At 19, he's the youngest actor to ever win this award.

Prakruti Mishra won a Special Mention for the Odia film, Hello Arsi.

Yasharaj Karhade won a Special Mention in the Feature Film Section for the Marathi movie Mhorkya.

Vaishali Sood won the award for Best Educational Film in the Non Feature Film section for The Little Girl We Were... And The Women We Are.

Teenaa Kaur won the award for Best Investigative Film in the Non Feature Film section for 1984, When the Sun Didn't Rise.

Juhi Bhatt won the award for Best Film on Social Issues for Veil Done.

President Ram Nath Kovind arrives. The Rashtrapati made it known that he could only spare an hour for the event.

Meet the jury, lead by Shekhar Kapoor.

Photographs: PIB/Twitter, President of India/Twitter