Rajinikanth: I dedicate this Dadasaheb Phalke Award to my guru Balachander who created 'Rajinikanth'

Rajinikanth, who was conferred with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2019 earlier today, took to Twitter to acknowledge the honour.

In a series of tweets, the actor first thanked the government of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union I&B minister Prakash Javdekar and the jury for conferring the award.

The actor also posted a heartfelt letter to thank all the people from different streams of his life. "I dedicate this award to my friend Raj Bahadur who identified my talent for acting, to my brother Satyanarayana Rao Gaekwad, who strived and sacrificed a lot to make me an actor, even when we were struggling financially, to my guru Balachander for introducing me to the big screen and creating this 'Rajinikanth'," he wrote in Tamil. 

Rajinikanth also dedicated the award to his producers, directors, technicians, financial executives, theatre owners, media, the people of Tamil Nadu, and his fans around the world.

He also thanked Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi Palaniswami, Deputy CM O Panneerselvam, DMK President MK Stalin, his dear friend actor-politician Kamal Haasan, and political leaders across the nation, friends from all streams of life, and well-wishers.

Billed as the highest honour awarded for Indian cinema personalities, the Dadasaheb Phalke award was recently awarded to Amitabh Bachchan for the year 2018. Rajinikanth joins an illustrious list of film personalities to have received the honour, including his mentor K Balachander, Sivaji Ganesan, Satyajit Ray, Amitabh Bachchan, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Gulzar, Lata Mangeshkar, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, and K Vishwanath. He is the fourth actor from South Indian cinema after Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Sivaji Ganesan, and Rajkumar to be awarded the Dadasaheb Phallke award.

The award will be presented to Rajinikanth on May 3, when the recently announced National Awards will also be awarded to the recipients.