Actor Rajinikanth was conferred with the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award on Monday. He received the prestigious award from Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu for his stupendous contribution to Indian cinema.

Rajinikanth is also the recipient of Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, and has featured in Bollywood as well as South Indian films.

The veteran star was felicitated with a Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) medallion, a shawl, and a cash prize.

After receiving the honour, Rajinikanth thanked the central government. "I am extremely happy to receive this most prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award. My thanks to the honourable central government. I dedicate this award to my mentor, my guru K. Balachander. This moment, I remember him with great gratitude, and my brother Satyanarayan Gaikwad who's like my father who brought me up by teaching me great values, and spirituality. My friend in Karnataka, bus transport driver, and my colleague Rajbahadur."

He recalled his days of struggle. "When I was the bus conductor, he identified the acting talent in me and encouraged me to join the cinema. All my producers, directors, co-artistes, technicians, distributors, exhibitors and the media, press and all my fans. Tamil people - without them I am no body. Jai Hind!".

The actor was accompanied by wife Latha, daughter Aishwarya and son-in-law Dhanush.

Rajinikanth's son-in-law Dhanush has also received the award for Best Actor for Tamil film 'Asuran.' He shared the award with Manoj Bajpayee who was honoured for his film 'Bhonsle.' On the other hand, Kangana Ranaut was honoured with the Best Actress award for her performances in the Hindi films 'Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi' and 'Panga'.

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2019 was to be announced last year but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, as were the National Film Awards for 2019. The event is organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke, awarded for excellence in cinematic achievement, is the highest honour in film and is awarded by the government.

The recipient of the 2018 award was actor Amitabh Bachchan, who has shared screen space with Rajinikanth in the 1991 action-drama Hum.

Image Courtesy: Times now