The National Film Award for Best Lyrics (the Silver Lotus Award) is an honour presented annually at the National Film Awards  by the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) to a lyricist who has composed the best song for films produced within the Indian film industry. The award was first introduced at the 16th National Film Awards in 1969. It was intermittently awarded till the 22nd National Film Awards (1975). From then on, no award was presented until the 32nd National Film Awards (1985). However, since 1985 every year the award has been presented with the exception of the 34th National Film Awards (1987). As of the 62nd National Film Awards (2015), the DFF has presented a total of 36 awards to 24 different lyricists.