NEW DELHI: Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has won the highest honour at India’s prestigious national film awards announced on Friday. Kumar won the best actor award for his role in Hindi movie ‘Rustom’. “I am truly humbled by this honour and I would like to thank the national award jury and all my fans from the core of my heart,” Kumar said in his message. Malayalam actress Surabhi Lakshmi won the Best Actress award for her role in Malayalam language film ‘Minnaminungu’ (The Firefly). The Best Film award went to ‘Neerja’, a film based on hijacking of an Indian flight in 1986, where the flight attendant risks her life to prevent hijackers from attacking the passengers on board. The government also honours regional Indian cinema and film technicians through the annual awards. The national film awards are the most prominent film awards in India given by the government. ‘Rustom’ is a 2016 Indian crime thriller film written by Vipul K Rawal, directed by Tinu Suresh Desai and produced by Neeraj Pandey. It features Akshay Kumar, Ileana D’Cruz, Arjan Bajwa and Esha Gupta in the lead roles. The film is based on the real life incident of Naval Officer KM Nanavati and businessman Prem Ahuja. Principal photography of the film was commenced in February 2016 and it was released on August 12, 2016.