Bollywood added to the ceremony with actor John Abraham, Parineeti Chopra, Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui turning up for the event. Produced by Abraham, Vicky Donor won three trophies. It was the joint winner with Anwar Rasheed-directed Malayalam film Ustad Hotel for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment honour. Both the films received Swarna Kamal and Rs. 2,00,000. Best supporting honours went to Vicky Donor actors Annu Kapoor and Dolly Ahluwalia who shared the award with Kalpana for Malayalam film Thanichalla Njan. "2012 was a very good year for quality films so it is great to see your film win three national awards. The film was based on an unusual subject of sperm donation which is not discussed openly but the jury loved the film. It is also special to get the award from the President as I always wanted to meet him," film's director Shoojit Sircar told PTI.

Bedabrata Pain's much-lauded movie Chittagong shared Indira Gandhi award for best debut film with Siddhartha Siva's Malayalam film 101 Chodiyangal. Both the films were given Swarna Kamal and Rs. 1,25,000. Director Sujoy Ghosh won the best original screenplay award for his Vidya Balan-starrer Kahaani while another Hindi film Oh My God won the best screenplay for Bhavesh Mandalia and Umesh Shukhla. Ustad Hotel was recognised for best dialogue for Anjali Menon. Each winner was given Rajat Kamal and Rs. 50,000. Kahaani's Namrata Rao was given the trophy for best editing. She also received Rajat Kamal and Rs. 50,000. Singer Shankar Mahadevan and lyricist Prasoon Joshi were given the award for best male playback singing and lyrics in Chittagong. Shankar also performed his award winning song at the ceremony.