Actress Ratna Pathak Shah known for many memorable performances for over three decades bagged the Best Actress Award for director Alankrita Srivastava's recent film `Lipstick Under My Burkha`.

Featuring Ratna Pathak Shah, Konkona Sen Sharma, Aahana Kumar and Plabita Borthakur, `Lipstick Under My Burkha` is an Indian Black Comedy film. Felicitating her with the award was an obvious choice for the public who voted in large numbers and the jury Sujoy Ghosh, Nikkhil Advani, Farah Khan and Sudhir Mishra who unanimously decided to honour the seasoned actress for her exceptional acting skills. ​​

Actor Rajat Kapoor presented the award to talented Ratna Pathak Shah at the News ​REEL Movie Awards 2018. Accepting the award, Ratna Pathak Shah said, `I would like to thank News18 for recognizing my work in `Lipstick Under My Burkha`. It's particularly interesting that they decided to award a 60-year-old in this category. That's quite a risk, thanks for taking it.`

​Speaking o​n News18's efforts to felicitate New Age Cinema, the actress said, " This was my first time at an award ceremony that celebrates independent cinema and I must say the whole ceremony was wonderful. The kind of films that were recognized and the kind of films that were talked about were all films that I have seen and liked very much. I think they were all deserving of the kind of awards that we get."


The champions of creative storytelling deserve the glory and recognition in the industry. The jury presented an award for the Breakthrough Actor to none-other-than Rajkummar Rao. The best actor award was presented to Irrfan Khan for his exceptional performance in Hindi Medium. Mukti Bhawan won the first News18 REEL Movie Awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay Award and director Amit Masurkar bagged the Best Director award for Newton. Meher Vij was awarded the Best Supporting Actor (Female) for the movie Secret Superstar, while Pankaj Tripathi won the award for Newton in the Best Supporting Actor (Male) category. ​

The event graced the presence of ​celebrities such as Richa Chaddha, Jim Sarbh, Dia Mirza, Gulshan Devaiah, Sonali Kulkarni, author Amish Tripathi, Anupriya Goenka, Amit Sadh, Rajat Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Boman Irani, Tillotama Shome, Satyajeet Dubey, Shrishti Arya, Amitosh Nagpal, Mghna Mishra, Sirsha Ray, Shweta Venkat, Sanghamitra Hitaishi, Kubra Sait and Rahul Bhatt.

News18 REEL Movie Awards are India's first and only movie awards that recognize and rewards new age cinema. Independent Cinema is on the path of a lot of success and international recognition, thanks to its unique and noteworthy content. With the introduction of this award, India has taken a step forward to celebrate the grandeur engaged with it. ​​