Highlights:
- Rajnikanth was honoured with the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke award at the 67th National Film Awards held at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan
- The awards for Best Actress was bagged by Kangana Ranaut and those for Best Actor by Manoj Bajpayee and Rajnikanth’s son-in-law, Dhanush
- Rajnikanth’s upcoming movie, Annaatthe is all set to release on November 4.
India’s highest film honour, the Dadasaheb Phalke award was conferred to Indian film actor, Rajnikanth, at the 67th National Film Awards held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. He accepted the award from Vice President, Venkaiah Naidu for his unparalleled contribution to Indian cinema. The actor was escorted by his wife Latha, daughter Aishwarya and son-in-law Dhanush who was bestowed with the Best Actor award for his Tamil period action drama film “Asuran”. Bollywood television actress Kangana Ranaut received the Best Actress award for her films “Manikarnika” and “Panga”. Likewise, Manoj Bajpayee was awarded Best Actor for his “Bhonsle”.
Rajnikanth, prior to making his mark in the television industry, worked as a bus conductor and dedicated his award to one of his old bus driver friends, who encouraged him to pursue films. This is the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke award that has been bestowed upon Rajnikanth. BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Prakash Javadekar broke out the news earlier this year in April. He took to the official Twitter account of the Directorate of Film Festivals, India and announced that Rajnikanth, who was widely known as Thalaiva among his fans, would be accorded with the Dadasaheb Phalke award on October 25th.
The announcement of the Dadasaheb Phalke recipient for 2019 was delayed last year because of the covid-19 pandemic, coinciding with the postponement of the National Film Awards for 2019. The Dadasaheb award is the greatest honour in cinema and is presented for brilliance in cinematic achievements. A jury comprising of singers, Asha Bhonsle and Shankar Mahadevan, along with actors Mohanlal, Biswajeet Chatterjee and filmmaker Subhash Ghai had chosen Rajnikanth for the award.
Biswajeet Chatterjee at the National Fim Awards remarked that they elected Rajnikanth as the bearer of the award because he is a “talented” person and is also extremely “down to earth”.
Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan was honoured with the former Dadasaheb Phalke award of 2018 for his exceptional contribution to the amplification of Indian cinema.
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Rajnikanth has also been honoured with the esteemed Padma Vibhushan, which is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna. Rajnikanth has worked in both Bollywood and South Indian films and has a gigantic fan following.
He kicked off his career in the film industry with K Balachander’s Apoorva Ragangal and has concluded almost 45years in the Tamil film industry. Rajnikanth last starred in AR Murugadoss’s Darbar. He would be next seen in his much-awaited movie, Annaatthe.
The movie co-starring Nayanthara, Keerthy Suresh, Khushboo and Prakash Raj has been directed by South Indian film director and cinematographer, Sivakumar Jayakumar. The movie, which had been postponed multiple times on account of the covid-19 pandemic, is set to hit the box office on November 4th.
