The Iconic superstar Rajnikanth is to be bestowed with the 2019 Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Information and Broadcasting shared the news via Twitter on Thursday morning Introduced in 1969, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India’s highest award in cinema. It is presented annually at the National Film Awards Ceremony organized by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Prior to Rajnikant, Amitabh Bachchan was the recipient of this award in 2018. For the last three years, there was no nomination for this award.
The jury this year for this 51st prestigious award included playback singer Asha Bhosle, director-producer Subhash Ghai, Malayalam superstar Mohanlal, music composer, and singer Shankar Mahadevan and Biswajeet Chatterjee. Rajinikanth is the 12th South Indian to get this award. Legends like Dr. Rajkumar, Akkineni Nageshwar Rao, K Balachander have been awarded before.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted a congratulatory note for Rajnikanth, “it is a matter of immense joy that Thalaiva has been conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award”. Since the award announcement, social media has been flooded with good wishes for Rajnikanth. Notable film personalities and political leaders have joined the bandwagon apart from all the Rajni fans.
Rajinikanth was born on December 12, 1950, in Karnataka. The highest paid actor allegedly, started out as a bus conductor and rose to unmatched stardom.Rajinikanth made his debut in 1975 Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal, and there had been no looking back since then. The actor had gone on to deliver plenty of blockbusters and is a popular actor. Rajinikanth has earlier won four Tamil Nadu State Film awards. He was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan in 2000, and was honored with the Padma Vibhushan award in 2016. Besides this, Rajinikanth was bestowed with the Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year at the 45th edition of International Film Festival.
The announcement of Dada Saheb Phalke award for Rajinkanth was made just days before the assembly election in Tamil Nadu. There had been considerable speculations to this effect, considering the actor’s large fan following in the state. The Union Minister has rebuffed the allegation stating that this award is related to India’s film world wherein Rajnikant has worked for 50 years.and has given extraordinary contribution. Three years after initiating into politics, Rajinikanth recently announced that he will not form a new political party and be a contestent for the upcoming Assembly election due to his deteriorating health.
Apart from film industry and media and notable political personalities, Rajnikath has expressed most sincere thanks to his bus driver and friend Raj Bahadur and his brother Sathyanarayana Rao Gaekwad who sacrificed a lot for him and of course K Balachander for creating ‘the Rajinikanth.’ Rajnikant has dedicated this award to all his fans in the entire world. The notable actor added “Long Live Tamils, May Tamil Nadu prosper, Jai Hind!”
