Chetak Screen Awards 2026: Dhurandhar dominates with 14 wins; Homebound crowned Best Film; Yami Gautam, Ranveer Singh win Best Actor honours

Chetak Screen Awards 2026: Dhurandhar dominates with 14 wins; Homebound crowned Best Film; Yami Gautam, Ranveer Singh win Best Actor honours

Mumbai, April 6: Making the janata fall in love with film awards again, the Chetak Screen Awards 2026 celebrated everything that defines Hindi cinema and OTT in resplendent style, without missing its signature ingredient: credibility. In a star-studded ceremony in Mumbai on Sunday, April 5, the finest talents who made 2025 extra special for all of us were honoured with the Chetak Screen Awards, which were finalised through a rigorous, transparent process.

In Bollywood’s biggest night in recent times, director Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound was named Best Film. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and businesswoman Nita Ambani presented the trophy to the film’s team. Meanwhile, director Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar emerged as the preeminent title at the ceremony, clinching 14 awards in total. Bollywood icon Dharmendra was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

While Aditya Dhar won the Chetak Screen Award for Best Director, Yami Gautam was named Best Actor (Female) for her performance in Haq, and Ranveer Singh bagged the trophy for Best Actor (Male) for Dhurandhar.

In a significant and timely move, the Chetak Screen Awards 2026 introduced five new categories to celebrate cinematic excellence in the OTT domain. While Sanya Malhotra won Best Actor (Female) – OTT Film for her performance in Mrs, Karan Tejpal’s Stolen emerged as a major winner at the Chetak Screen Awards, taking home Best OTT Film, Best Director – OTT film (Karan Tejpal), Best Actor (Male) – OTT film for Abhishek Banerjee, and Best Script – OTT film (Karan Tejpal, Gaurav Dhingra, and Swapnil Salkar).

The gala ceremony was nothing short of extravagant as Bollywood star Alia Bhatt took the stage as host, accompanied by actor-comedians Sunil Grover and Zakir Khan, and Saurabh Dwivedi, Editor – Hindi, The Indian Express. But at the same time, the Chetak Screen Awards were not just about opulence. In the In Memoriam segment, the Indian film industry legends who passed away in 2025 were honoured. As images of those icons appeared on the large screen, one by one, all the attendees stood, paying tribute to the departed.

Subsequently, Bobby Deol accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of his late father, Dharmendra. The award was presented by legendary screenwriter-lyricist Javed Akhtar, veteran filmmaker Ramesh Sippy, and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis. While addressing the gathering, Bobby choked up and said, “I see my father’s love in all your eyes. My father touched everyone’s hearts through his work and even through his Instagram reels, which had become his new hobby.”

Mentioning that Dharmendra always believed in spreading happiness and gratitude, Bobby added, “He always wanted people to stay happy and believed that God has given all of us so much in life. He used to say that we all have a special gift within us, and if we believe in it, we can achieve anything.”

About Chetak Screen Awards 2026

India’s most prestigious and credible film awards, instituted by The Indian Express Group, the Chetak Screen Awards were created with the belief that art must be recognised purely on merit, integrity, and peer respect. To ensure this, the Screen Academy — an independent, not-for-profit body comprising 53 acclaimed filmmakers, artistes, and cultural voices — was formed. The Academy selected the nominees and, subsequently, the winners through a careful, rigorous procedure.

Chetak Screen Awards 2026 Partners

The Chetak Screen Awards saw some of the top brands come together. Chetak as the Title Partner, Campa as the Co-presenting Partner, Maharashtra Tourism and MIDC as the State Partners, House of McDowells as the Celebration Partner, Reliance Digital as Retail Partner, Senco as the Style Partner, Century Laminates as the Strength Partner, In Partnership with YouTube, MMRDA, CIDCO and MSRDC as the Industry Partners, Crafter by The Award Gallery, Radio City as the Radio Partner, Bright Outdoor media as the OOH Partner, Sony Entertainment Television as the TV Partner, Sony Liv as OTT Partner, Scripted & Directed by Hyperlink.

Chetak Screen Awards’ selection process

Following an initial shortlisting, the Screen Academy evaluated the films through structured voting. For this, Dr Priya Jaikumar, Chair of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Los Angeles, and scholar-in-residence at Screen Academy, developed detailed grading guidelines that the Academy members followed.

While the films were evaluated based on creativity and overall experience, technical excellence, viewer connectivity, and innovation, for the performance-based categories, a fifth shared criterion — authenticity — was also added. Thus, the winners in all 31 categories were finalised after a meticulous, transparent process, making the Chetak Screen Awards 2026 one of a kind in India’s cinematic landscape.

Who are the Screen Academy members?

The illustrious Screen Academy members include Shoojit Sircar, Deepa Mehta, Sriram Raghavan, Ram Madhvani, Guneet Monga Kapoor, John Abraham, Kabir Khan, Karan Johar, Mukesh Chhabra, Payal Kapadia, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Rajkumar Hirani, Resul Pookutty, Rima Das and Vidya Balan, among others.

Here is the full list of winners at Chetak Screen Awards 2026:

Best Film: Homebound

Best Actor (Female): Yami Gautam Dhar – Haq

Best Actor (Male): Ranveer Singh – Dhurandhar

Best Director: Aditya Dhar – Dhurandhar

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female): Shalini Vatsa – Homebound

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male): Akshaye Khanna – Dhurandhar

Best Action: Aejaz Gulab, Sea Young Oh, Yannick Ben, Ramazan Bulut – Dhurandhar

Best Background Score: Shashwat Sachdev – Dhurandhar

Best Choreography: Vijay Ganguly – Shararat (Dhurandhar)

Best Cinematography: Vikash Nowlakha – Dhurandhar

Best Costume: Sheetal Iqbal Sharma – Chhaava; Smriti Chauhan – Dhurandhar

Best Dialogue: Aditya Dhar – Dhurandhar

Best Editing: Shivkumar V Panicker – Dhurandhar

Best Film for Gender Sensitivity: Haq

Best Film Writing (Story & Screenplay): Basharat Peer, Neeraj Ghaywan, Sumit Roy – Homebound

Best Hairstyling & Make-Up: Preetisheel Singh D’souza – Dhurandhar

Best Song: Saiyaara Title Track – Saiyaara (Tanishk Bagchi, Faheem Abdullah, Arslan Nizami)

Best Lyrics: Gulzar – Ul Julool Ishq (Gustaakh Ishq)

Best Playback Singer (Male): Faheem Abdullah – Saiyaara Title Track (Saiyaara)

Best Playback Singer (Female): Shreya Ghoshal – Saiyaara Title Track (Saiyaara)

Best Production Design: Saini S Johray – Dhurandhar

Best Sound Design: Bishwadeep Chatterjee – Dhurandhar

Best Special Effects: Envision VFX, Philm CGI, Resonance Digital, Dhruti Ranjan Sahoo, Vishal Tyagi, Raza Mohammed Shaikh – Dhurandhar

Breakthrough Debut Director: Shazia Iqbal – Dhadak 2

Breakthrough New Actor (Female): Aneet Padda – Saiyaara

Breakthrough New Actor (Male): Ahaan Panday – Saiyaara

Best OTT Film – Stolen

Best Actor (Female) – OTT Film: Sanya Malhotra – Mrs

Best Actor (Male) – OTT film: Abhishek Banerjee – Stolen

Best Director – OTT film: Karan Tejpal – Stolen

Best Script – OTT film: Stolen – Karan Tejpal, Gaurav Dhingra, Swapnil Salkar (AGADBUMB