The National Film Awards are given by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, every year to honour the best in Indian cinema.
The Awards for the year 2019 were announced in March 2021 and were handed out in a ceremony held on October 25th, 2021, in Delhi.
What is the Dadasaheb Phalke Award
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is the highest honour in India for professionals in cinema. It is given to a professional for their “outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema”.
This year, the award was given to Shri Rajnikanth. Before this, he has also won the Padma Bhushan (2000) and the Padma Vibhushan (2016) awards. He has acted in over 160 Indian films and has a career that dates back to 1975.
Why is the Dadasaheb Phalke Award so named?
The first Indian feature film was made in 1913. It was called Raja Harishchandra. The director of that film was Shri Dadasaheb Phalke. India’s highest honour in the world of cinema was named after this doyen of the industry. If you’d like, do read the history of Indian cinema to understand how difficult it was to make a feature film in India at that time.
You can see the full list of Dadasaheb Phalke Award winners here:
https://dff.nic.in/PhalkeAward.aspx
Here are two other important winners of the National Film Awards 2021:
Best Actress: Kangana Ranaut
Best Actor: Awarded Jointly to Shri Dhanush and Shri Manoj Bajpayee