| Year |
Winner |
Film |
| 2006 |
Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra
| Lage Raho Munna Bhai (Hindi) |
| 2005 |
Prakash Jha, Manoj Tyagi & Shridhar Raghavan
| Apaharan (Hindi) |
| 2004 |
Nina Arora and Manoj Tyagi
| Page 3 (Hindi) |
| 2003 |
Gautam Ghose |
Abar Aranye (Bengali) |
| 2002 |
Aparna Sen |
Mr & Mrs Iyer (English / Tamil) |
| 2001 |
Neelakanta |
Show (Telugu) |
| 2000 |
Bharathiraja |
Kadal Pookkal (Tamil) |
| 1999 |
B. Unnikrishnan & T.K. Rajeevkumar |
Jalamarmaram (Malayalam) |
| 1998 |
Ashok Mishra |
Godmother (Hindi) |
| 1997 |
Rituparno Ghosh |
Dahan (Bengali) |
| 1996 |
Agaththian |
Kaathal Kottai (Tamil) |
| 1995 |
Ashok Mishra & Saeed Akhtar Mirza |
Naseem (Hindi) |
| 1994 |
M.T. Vasudevan Nair |
Parinayam (Malayalam) |
| 1993 |
Sandip Ray |
Uttoran ((Bengali) |
| 1992 |
M.T. Vasudevan Nair |
Sadayam (Malayalam) |
| 1991 |
M.T. Vasudevan Nair |
Kadavu (Malayalam) |
| 1990 |
K.S. Sethu Madhavan |
Marupakkam (Tamil) |
| 1989 |
M.T. Vasudevan Nair |
Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (Malayalam) |
| 1988 |
Arundhati Roy |
In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones ((English) |
| 1987 |
Adoor Gopalakrishnan |
Anantharam (Malayalam) |
| 1986 |
Budhdhadeb Dasgupta |
Phera (Bengali) |
| 1985 |
Bhabendranath Nath Saikia |
Agni Snaan (Assamese) |
| 1984 |
Adoor Gopalakrishnan |
Mukhamukham (Malayalam) |
| 1983 |
G V Iyer |
Adi Shankaracharya (Sanskrit) |
| 1982 |
Mrinal Sen |
Kharij (Bengali) |
| 1981 |
K. Balachander |
Thanneer Thanneer (Tamil) |
| 1980 |
Mrinal Sen |
Akaler Sandhane (Bengali) |
| 1979 |
Sai Paranjpye |
Sparsh (Hindi) |
| 1978 |
T.S. Ranga & T.S. Nagabharana |
Grahana (Kannada) |
| 1977 |
Satyadev Dubey, Shyam Benegal & Girish Karnad |
Bhumika (Hindi) |
| 1976 |
Vijay Tendulkar |
Manthan (Hindi) |
| 1975 |
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| 1974 |
Satyajit Ray |
Sonar Kella (Bengali) |
| 1973 |
Mrinal Sen & Ashish Burman |
Padatik (Bengali) |
| 1972 |
Gulzar |
Koshish (Hindi) |
| 1971 |
Tapan Sinha |
Ekhonee (Bengali) |
| 1970 |
Satyajit Ray |
Pratidwandi (Bengali) |
| 1969 |
S.R. Puttanna Kanagal |
Gejje Pooje (Kannada) |
| 1968 |
Pandit Anand Kumar |
Anokhi Raat (Hindi) |
| 1967 |
S.L. Puram Sadanandan |
Agni Puthri (Malayalam) |
| 1966 |
Satyajit Ray |
Nayak (Bengali) |
