Actor Rajinikanth will be honoured with the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award, I&B ministry announced. 

The selection has been made by a jury comprising Asha Bhosle, Mohanlal, Biswajit Chatterjee, Shankar Mahadevan and Subhash Ghai.

Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Indian cinema’s highest honour, for the year 2019, will be presented to Rajinikanth on May 3, along with the National Film Awards.

Rajinikanth made his debut in the 1975 Tamil film ‘Apoorva Raagangal’. He has delivered super hit films such as ‘Thalapathi’, ‘Billa’, ‘Muthu’, ‘Baasha’, ‘Sivaji’ and ‘Enthiran’. He has also starred in several Hindi movies such as ‘Hum’, ‘Andha Kanoon’, ‘Bhagwaan Dada’, ‘Aatank Hi Aatank’ and ‘Chaalbaaz’. 

He has also acted in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali movies.

Rajinikanth was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 2000 and Padma Vibhushan in 2016.

Dadasaheb Phalke Award

• To honour the ‘Father of Indian Cinema’, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, the National Film Awards named the most prestigious and coveted award of Indian Cinema after him. 

• He is the man who made the first Indian Feature film Raja Harishchandra in 1913. Popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke, he then went on to make 95 films and 26 short films in a span of 19 years. 

• The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was introduced in 1969 by the government to recognise the contribution of film personalities towards the development of Indian Cinema. 

• The first recipient of this award was Devika Rani.

• Dadasaheb Phalke Award is given to a film personality for his/her outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian Cinema. The award comprises of a Swarna Kamal, a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh, certificate, silk scroll and a shawl.

Some of the previous awardees are:

• Amitabh Bachchan - 2018

• Vinod Khanna - 2017

• K. Viswanath - 2016

• Manoj Kumar - 2015

• Shashi Kapoor - 2014

• Gulzar - 2013

• Pran - 2012

• Soumitra Chatterjee - 2011

• K. Balachander - 2010.

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