Veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan will receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest honour in cinema. The announcement was made by Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday.
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award comprises a Swarna Kamal medallion, a shawl and a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh. The last recipient of the award was actor Vinod Khanna, who received the honour posthumously in 2017. The 66th National Film Awards were delayed this year due to the 2019 general elections in India.
The first Dadasaheb Phalke award was presented to Devika Rani in 1969, incidentally the same year Amitabh made his acting debut in Saat Hindustani. So far, there have been 50 recipients of the award. The luminaries includes Prithviraj Kapoor (1971), Satyajit Ray (1984), Raj Kapoor (1987), Lata Mangeshkar (1989), Dilip Kumar (1994), Sivaji Ganesan (1996), Yash Chopra (2001), Mrinal Sen (2003), Adoor Gopalakrishnan (2004) and others.
Amitabh Bachchan’s career traverses five decades of Indian film. He ruled over the commercial cinema of the 1970s with popular films like Deewaar, Zanjeer, Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony, Don, Trishul and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar. He was also noted for his middle-of-the-road appearances in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand, Abhimaan, Namak Haraam, Chupke Chupke, Alaap, Jurmana and Bemisal. Through the ‘80s, Bachchan continued to dominate Hindi cinema with iconic roles in Dostana, Kaalia, Silsila, Shakti, Sahenshah and Coolie. He delivered powerhouse turns in Agneepath and and Khuda Gawah in the early 90s before retiring briefly for a few years.
The last two decades have witnessed Amitabh’s resurgence with character-driven roles in Aks, Baghban, Black, Sarkar, Cheeni Kum, Paa, Piku and Pink. His most recent appearance was in Badla, a mystery thriller directed by Sujoy Ghosh. Amitabh will be seen in an extended cameo in Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy. He reunites with Piku director Shoojit Sircar on Gulabo Sitabo, co-starring Ayushmann Khurrana.
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is usually presented with the National Film Awards. Amitabh Bachchan’s government honours include the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and four National Awards.