- India
- Sep 17
Anant Nag to receive Dadasaheb Phalke Award
• Veteran actor Anant Nag will be honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024, the highest recognition in Indian cinema.
Who is Anant Nag?
• Anant Nag was born in Karnataka on September 4, 1948.
• He started doing plays in Konkani, Hindi and Marathi for five years. There he met and was influenced by people like Satyadev Dubey, Girish Karnad and Amol Palekar.
• He made his acting debut with Kannada movie ‘Sankalpa’ (1973) and his Hindi debut with ‘Ankur’ (1974).
• Nag portrayed diverse characters in over 300 films across Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, and Marathi cinema, including notable works such as Malgudi Days.
• He was a part of popular Doordashan serial ‘Malgudi Days’, the TV adaptation of R.K. Narayan’s popular work that was directed by his brother Shankar Nag.
• In 2023, he celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his 50-year career in cinema.
• Nag has won five Filmfare Awards and five Karnataka State Best Actor Awards, along with the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award, the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award, and the Karnataka State Lifetime Achievement Award.
• He also holds an Honorary Doctorate from Bangalore University (North).
• He served as a Member of the Karnataka Legislative Council from 1988 to 1994 and as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from 1994 to 1999, during which he held office as Minister of State for Bangalore City Development.
• In 2025, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan.
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 a Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) medallion, a shawl, and a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh.
Some of the previous awardees are:
• Mohanlal - 2023
• Mithun Chakraborty - 2022
• Waheeda Rehman - 2021
• Asha Parekh - 2020
• Rajinikanth - 2019
• 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.