Indian Actor Rajinikanth Receives Country’s Highest Movie Award

Indian actor Rajinikanth will be honored with the country's highest award in cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, this year.

Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce the news, while addressing Rajinikanth as "one of the greatest actors in the history of Indian cinema."

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated the actor on Twitter.

"Popular across generations, a body of work few can boast of, diverse roles and an endearing personality...that’s Shri @rajinikanth Ji for you," he tweeted. "It is a matter of immense joy that Thalaiva has been conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Congratulations to him."

The 70-year-old actor responded to the prime minister's tweet, saying he was "immensely humbled and honoured with your greetings."

The official Twitter handle of Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival shared the news and wished the actor "heartiest congratulations."

Rajinikanth -- whose real name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad -- has been awarded for his lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. The dates for the official ceremony have not been made public yet.

The award is named after Dadasaheb Phalke, who directed India's first feature movie, "Raja Harischandra," which was released in 1913. Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards was first introduced in 1969 by the Indian government to commemorate Phalke, who is also known as the father of Indian cinema. The award carries a cash price of $13,600.

The jury of the award includes Indian singer Asha Bhonsle, musician Shankar Mahadevan, filmmaker Subhash Ghai and legendary actors Biswajit Chatterjee and Mohanlal.

Rajinikanth began his career with the Tamil-language film “Apoorva Raagangal,” which was released in 1975. The actor achieved cult status by working in over 160 films across many Indian languages. While Rajinikanth is considered a superstar in India, he has a strong fan base in countries such as Japan and the United States.

Ghai also took to Twitter to wish Rajinikanth and addressed him as "a super man with a humble mind."

Besides Rajinikanth, other Indian actors were also honored with Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2021. Indian actor Akshay Kumar won the best actor award for his comedy-horror movie, "Laxmii," which was released on Nov. 9, 2020.

Indian actress Deepika Padukone won the "best actress" award for drama-biography "Chhapaak," which was released on Jan. 10, 2020.

Rajinikanth’s upcoming action-drama movie, "Annaatthe," is slated to release on Nov. 2.