The prestigious national awards were attended by only handful of recipients. 70 winners out of 131 have boycotted the function protesting the decision made by Information and Broadcast Ministry. The ministry has earlier decided that only 11 out of 131 awards would be personally given by the President and the rest would be delivered by Smriti Irani (minister of I&B). Earlier the winners have expressed their dissent by signing a petition, mentioning that they felt "dejected rather than honoured for our work". However, no one took a serious note of their dissent and the program was scheduled as usual.