Superstar Rajinikanth, chosen for the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award by the Centre for the year 2020, received the prestigious honour on Monday.
For the unversed, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2019 should have been announced last year but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as were the National Film Awards for 2019.
The prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke, awarded for excellence in cinematic achievement, is the highest honour in film and is awarded by the government.
It marks as a dual celebration as his daughter Soundarya Vishagan will also be launching a voice-based social media platform called “Hoote”, saying it will be a "useful app" for the people.
A day before, Rajinikanth, who left for Delhi on Sunday, said in a statement, "Tomorrow is an important occasion for me with two special landmarks. One, Dadasaheb Phalke Award being conferred upon me by the Government of India because of the love and support of the people.”
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The recipient of the 2018 award was megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who has shared screen space with Rajinikanth in the 1991 action-drama 'Hum'.
Rajinikanth who is also the recipient of Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, has featured in Bollywood as well as South Indian films and has a humongous fan following.
He had made his debut in 1975 with K Balachander's 'Apoorva Ragangal' and has completed more than 45 years in the Tamil film industry.
The 'Kabali' actor, who was last seen in AR Murugadoss's 'Darbar', will be soon seen playing the lead in his much-anticipated film 'Annaatthe'.
Helmed by south director Siva, 'Annaatthe' also stars Nayanthara, Keerthy Suresh, Khushboo, and Prakash Raj.
The movie, which is now scheduled to release on November 4, was postponed several times due to the production delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
