Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shri Prakash Javadekar on April 1, 2021 announced the recipient of the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
- The award for 2019 will be conferred to legendary actor Shri Rajinikanth.
- The name of the Rajinikanth was selected by a jury comprising Ms Asha Bhosle, Shri Mohanlal, Shri Biswajit Chatterjee, Shri Shankar Mahadevan and Shri Subhash Ghai.
- In 2018, the award was presented to Amitabh Bachchan, the Bollywood mahanayak.
About Dadasaheb Phalke Award
- The award, named after Dhundiraj Govind Phalke who is revered as the Father of Indian cinema, was instituted in 1969.
- 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.
- .The Dadasaheb Phalke Award comprises a Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) medallion, a shawl, and a cash prize of Rs. 10,00,000.
