Both Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani won the award twice jointly.

1960s edit

• 1969 Nabendu Ghosh – Majhli Didi

1970s edit

• 1970 Hrishikesh Mukherjee – Anokhi Raat
• 1971 Vijay Anand – Johny Mera Naam
• 1972 Basu Chatterjee – Sara Akash
• 1973 Arvind Mukherjee – Amar Prem
• 1974 Salim–Javed – Zanjeer
• 1975 Shama Zaidi, Kaifi Azmi – Garm Hava
• 1976 Salim–Javed – Deewaar
• 1977 Basu Chatterjee – Chhoti Si Baat
• 1978 Lekh Tandon, Vrajendra Kaur, Madhusudan Kalekar – Dulhan Wahi Jo Piya Man Bhaye
• 1979 Kamleshwar – Pati Patni Aur Woh

1980s edit

• 1980 Girish Karnad, B.V. Karanth – Godhuli
• 1981 Vijay Tendulkar – Aakrosh
• 1982 K. Balachander – Ek Duuje Ke Liye
• 1983 Salim–Javed – Shakti
• 1984 Vijay Tendulkar – Ardh Satya
• 1985 Mrinal Sen – Khandhar
• 1986 Goutam Ghose, Partha Banerjee – Paar
• 1987 Not Awarded
• 1988 Not Awarded
• 1989 Nasir Hussain – Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak

1990s edit

• 1990 Shiv Kumar Subramaniam – Parinda
• 1991 Basu Chatterjee – Kamla Ki Maut
• 1992 Tapan Sinha – Ek Doctor Ki Maut
• 1993 Aziz Mirza, Manoj Lalwani – Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman
• 1994 Robin Bhatt, Javed Siddiqui, Akash Khurana – Baazigar
• 1995 Sooraj R. Barjatya – Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!
• 1996 Aditya Chopra – Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
• 1997 Rajkumar Santoshi – Ghatak: Lethal
• 1998 Subhash Ghai – Pardes
• 1999 Karan Johar – Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

2000s edit

• 2000 John Matthew Matthan – Sarfarosh
• 2001 Honey Irani, Ravi Kapoor – Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai
• 2002 Farhan Akhtar – Dil Chahta Hai
• 2003 Mani Ratnam – Saathiya
• 2004 Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Lajan Joseph – Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.
• 2005 Mani Ratnam – Yuva
• 2006 Nina Arora, Manoj Tyagi – Page 3
• 2007 Jaideep Sahni – Khosla Ka Ghosla
• 2008 Anurag Basu – Life In A... Metro
• 2009 Yogendra Vinayak Joshi, Upendra Sidhaye – Mumbai Meri Jaan

2010s edit

• 2010 Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Abhijat Joshi – 3 Idiots
• 2011 Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane – Udaan
• 2012 Akshat Verma – Delhi Belly
• 2013 Sanjay Chauhan and Tigmanshu Dhulia – Paan Singh Tomar
• 2014 Chetan Bhagat, Abhishek Kapoor, Supratik Sen & Pubali Chaudhari – Kai Po Che!
• 2015 Rajkumar Hirani, Abhijat Joshi – PK
• 2016 Juhi Chaturvedi – Piku
• 2017 Shakun Batra, Ayesha Devitre - Kapoor & Sons
• 2018 Shubhashish Bhutiani - Mukti Bhawan
• 2019 Sriram Raghavan, Arijit Biswas, Pooja Ladha Surti, Yogesh Chandekar, Hemanth Rao – Andhadhun
  • Anubhav Sinha – Mulk
  • Bhavani Iyer and Meghna Gulzar – Raazi
  • Nandita Das – Manto
  • Raj and DK – Stree

• 2020 Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti - Gully Boy
  • Anubhav Sinha, Gaurav Solanki - Article 15
  • Balwinder Singh Janjua - Saand Ki Aankh
  • Jagan Shakti, R Balki, Dharma, Nidhi Singh, Saket Kodiparthi - Mission Mangal
  • Manish Gupta, Ajay Bahl - Section 375
  • Sudip Sharma - Sonchiriya
• 2021 Rohena Gera - Sir
  • Anubhav Sinha, Mrunmayee Lagoo Waikul - Thappad
  • Anurag Basu - Ludo
  • Kapil Sawant, Rajesh Krishnan -Lootcase
  • Prakash Kapadia, Om Raut -Tanhaji
• 2022 Shubendu Bhattacharya and Ritesh Shah – Sardar Udham
  • Aastha Tiku – Sherni
  • Aniruddha Guha – Rashmi Rocket
  • Dibakar Banerjee and Varun Grover – Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar
  • Kabir Khan, Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan and Vasan Bala – 83
  • Sandeep Shrivastava – Shershaah
• 2023 Harshavardhan Kulkarni, Akshat Ghildial and Suman Adhikary – Badhaai Do
  • Aakash Kaushik – Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2
  • Jaspal Singh Sandhu And Rajeev Barnwal – Vadh
  • Neeraj Yadav – An Action Hero
  • Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Utkarshini Vashishtha – Gangubai Kathiawadi
  • Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri – The Kashmir Files