India's Oscar submission Devdas has won eight awards in the first annual RACE (Rajkamal Academy Of Cinematic Excellence) National Awards, which will be presented at a ceremony in Mumbai, India, on Dec 21, 2002.

RACE was established in Oct 2002 by Kiran Shantaram to develop the Indian film industry; as well as the awards, further initiatives include the launching of film festivals, workshops and programmes to introduce Indian technicians to the latest film technologies.

The awards were for best film, best director (Sanjay Leela Bhansali), best female artist (Aishwarya Rai), best choreographer (Binod Pradhan), best editor (Bela Sehgal), best story and screenplay (Prakash Kapadia & Sanjay Leela Bhansali) and best music composer (Ismail Darbar).

Devdas, which world premiered in official selection at Cannes this year, is the biggest budgeted Bollywood film of all time at $10.2m and has so far grossed $34m worldwide. It is the ninth film version of the famous Indian saga of timeless love based on the 1917 Indian novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhye.