Superstar Rajinikanth will be receiving the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Union Minister Prakash Javedkar took to Twitter on Thursday to confirm that the prestigious award will be conferred upon Rajinikanth, who is also popularly known among fans as ‘Thalaivar’.
Praising the actor for his commendable contribution to Indian cinema, Prakash Javedkar wrote, “Happy to announce #Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2019 to one of the greatest actors in history of Indian cinema Rajnikant ji His contribution as actor, producer and screenwriter has been iconic I thank Jury @ashabhosle@SubhashGhai1@
Happy to announce #Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2019 to one of the greatest actors in history of Indian cinema Rajnikant ji
— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) April 1, 2021
His contribution as actor, producer and screenwriter has been iconic
I thank Jury @ashabhosle @SubhashGhai1 @Mohanlal@Shankar_Live #BiswajeetChatterjee pic.twitter.com/b17qv6D6BP
Presented by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting under the Directorate of Film Festivals, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award is considered to be India’s highest film award.
The award was first presented by the Government of India in the year 1969 to commemorate Dadasaheb Phalke’s contribution to Indian cinema. Popularly known as the Father of Indian cinema, director, producer and screenwriter Dhundiraj Govind Phalke made his debut with India’s first full-length movie Raja Harishchandra. Notable recipients of the award in recent times include Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan who received it in the year 2018, actor turned politician Vinodh Khanna in 2017 and director K Vishwanath in 2017.
Other accomplished recipients of the award include Devika Rani, who is popularly known as the first lady of Indian cinema, actor Prithviraj Kapoor, who starred in India’s first sound film and filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who is known as one of the fathers of parallel cinema in India.
Rajinikanth is one of the most iconic stars of Indian cinema. The veteran actor made his debut with the 1975 Tamil film Apoorva Ragangal. In his career which spans over four decades, the actor has appeared in more than 160 movies. Movies such as Billa, Muthu, Baasha, Sivaji, Arunachalam, Annamalai and Padayappa are some of the jewels in his crown. Although he has predominantly worked in Tamil movies, the film star has also worked in other film industries such as Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Bengali.
Before appearing in titular roles, Rajini did several films where he appeared in antagonist and supporting roles. Having won critical acclaim, record-breaking achievements at the box office and massive fan following, Rajinikanth is looked up as one of the most remarkable, established and popular film personalities of all time.
In recent years, he was seen in movies such as Pa Ranjith’s Kabali in 2016 and Kaala in 2018, and Karthik Subbaraj’s 2019 film Petta. He was last seen in the AR Murugadoss directorial Darbar, which hit the big screens in 2020. The 70-year-old actor is currently filming for his upcoming Kollywood movie Annatthe.