New Delhi, September 22: Veteran actor Anant Nag was conferred the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024 by President Droupadi Murmu at the 72nd National Film Awards ceremony held at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat on Tuesday.
The award recognises Nag’s outstanding contribution to Indian cinema over a career spanning more than seven decades. He is the second Kannada actor to receive the country’s highest honour in cinema, after legendary actor Dr Rajkumar, who was honoured in 1995.
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, instituted in 1969, is the highest recognition conferred by the Government of India for an individual’s contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema. It is named after Dadasaheb Phalke, who directedRaja Harishchandra, regarded as India’s first full-length feature film.
Accepting the honour, Nag expressed his gratitude and reflected on his journey from theatre to becoming one of Indian cinema’s most respected actors.
“I am trying to digest the majesty of this function. I am very happy to be with you all today,” he said, recalling his childhood in an ashram and his early exposure to theatre in Mumbai.
Nag also spoke about his deep connection with Karnataka, saying he felt particularly loved and respected in the state despite having worked across multiple Indian languages.
Dedicating the award to the people who contributed to his long career, he said the honour did not belong to him alone but also to producers, directors, assistant directors, colleagues and millions of audiences who embraced the characters he portrayed over the decades.
In his concluding remarks, Nag invoked the words of Adi Shankaracharya and spoke of his connection with India and Karnataka, describing the country as hisjanmabhoomiand Karnataka as hiskarmabhoomi.
Born on September 4, 1948, Nag began his acting journey in the early 1970s after developing an interest in theatre in Mumbai. He made his feature-film debut in the Kannada filmSankalpain 1973.
He subsequently appeared in several acclaimed films, including Shyam Benegal’sAnkur, a landmark work of India’s parallel cinema movement. Over the decades, Nag built a diverse body of work across Kannada and other Indian-language films, earning recognition for his natural and understated style of acting.
