National Film Award for Best Lyrics
The National Film Award for Best Lyrics is an honour presented annually at the National Film Awards by the Directorate of Film Festivals to a lyricist who has composed the best song for films produced within the Indian film industry. The award was first introduced at the 16th National Film Awards in 1969. It was intermittently awarded till the 22nd National Film Awards. From then on, no award was presented until the 32nd National Film Awards. However, since 1985 every year the award has been presented with the exception of the 34th National Film Awards. As of the 62nd National Film Awards, the DFF has presented a total of 36 awards to 24 different lyricists.
Although the Indian film industry produces films in around 20 languages and dialects, the recipients of the award include those who have worked in seven major languages: Hindi, Tamil, Bengali & Kannada, Telugu & Malayalam, Punjabi.
Tamil poet Kannadasan was the first recipient of the award. He won the prize for his work in the 1967 Tamil film Kuzhanthaikkaga. Vairamuthu is the most frequent winner in this category, having won the award seven times. Javed Akhtar is the second-most frequent winner of the award, with five wins. Four lyricists—Gulzar, Swanand Kirkire, Prasoon Joshi and Na. Muthukumar —have won the award on two occasions. Manjunatha S. is the most recent winner, awarded for the song "Maayavi Manase" from Kannada film Nathicharami.
List of recipients
| Indicates a joint award for that year |