The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is the highest honour in Indian cinema, given by the government of India. It is awarded each year during the National Film Awards ceremony. Winners receive a Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) medallion, a shawl, and a cash prize of ₹10 lakh. This year, legendary actor Mithun Chakraborty will be celebrated for his remarkable contribution to Indian cinema. Dadasaheb Phalke Award was first introduced in 1969 at the 17th National Film Awards. Waheeda Rehman is the most recent recipient of this prestigious award. Let’s take a closer look at the past winners over the decades:

1. 1960s and 1970s: The award was first presented in 1969 to actress Devika Rani. In the 1970s, Birendranath Sircar, Prithviraj Kapoor, Pankaj Mullick, Ruby Myers, Bommireddy Narasimha Reddy, Dhirendra Nath Ganguly, Kanan Devi, Nitin Bose, Raichand Boral and Sohrab Modi won the award.

2. 1980s: In the 1980s, the award was given to Paidi Jairaj, Naushad, LV Prasad, Durga Khote, Satyajit Ray, V Shantaram, B Nagi Reddy and Raj Kapoor. Toward the end of the decade, Ashok Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar were also honoured.

3. 1990s: Throughout the 1990s, the government of India continued to acknowledge cinema legends, such as Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Bhalji Pendharkar, Bhupen Hazarika, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Dilip Kumar, Rajkumar, Sivaji Ganesan, Kavi Pradeep, BR Chopra and Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

4. 2000s: In the 2000s, the award was given to Asha Bhosle, Yash Chopra and Dev Anand. Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, Tapan Sinha, Manna Dey, VK Murthy, D Ramanaidu and K Balachander were also the honourees. 

5. 2010s and beyond: In 2010 and after that, the award was won by Soumitra Chatterjee, Pran, Gulzar., Shashi Kapoor, Kasinathuni Viswanath, Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth and Asha Parekh. Waheeda Rehman is the latest recipient of this honour.

In addition to Mithun Chakraborty’s recognition with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the 70th National Film Awards will honour films certified by the censor board from January 1 to December 31, 2022. Rishab Shetty will be awarded Best Actor for his exceptional performance in Kantara. The Best Actress award will be shared by Nithya Menen for Thiruchitrambalam and Manasi Parekh for Kutch Express. Sooraj Barjatya has won the Best Director award for his work on Uunchai.

 Mithun Chakraborty will receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award at the 70th National Film Awards