Superstar Rajinikanth to receive 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award

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@Mohanlal@Shankar_Live#BiswajeetChatterjee.” Asha Bhosle, Mohanlal, Shankar Mahadevan, Subhash Ghai and Vishwajeet Chatterjee were on the five-judge panel. The award to be presented to Rajinikanth on May 3.

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 @Mohanlal@Shankar_Live #BiswajeetChatterjee pic.twitter.com/b17qv6D6BP

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) April 1, 2021

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.