Breaking: Rajinikanth to Receive Dadasaheb Phalke Award, PM Modi Congratulates Thalaiva | Earth Indian

New Delhi: Superstar Rajinikanth has been awarded the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award this year. The announcement was made on Thursday morning by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar who took to Twitter to make a congratulatory tweet for Thalaiva. The jury included prominent names from across the film and music industry including Shankar Mahadevan, Asha Bhosle, Malayalam actor Mohanlal, filmmaker Subhash Ghai, and Bengali star Biswajeet Chatterjee.

Javadekar shared a tweet congratulating the superstar. The caption on the post read, “Happy to announce #Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2020 to one of the greatest actors in the history of Indian cinema Rajnikant ji. His contribution as actor, producer and screenwriter has been iconic. I thank Jury @ashabhosle @SubhashGhai1 @Mohanlal @Shankar_Live #BiswajeetChatterjee” (sic)

Happy to announce #Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2020 to one of the greatest actors in history of Indian cinema Rajnikant ji

His contribution as actor, producer and screenwriter has been iconic

I thank Jury @ashabhosle @SubhashGhai1 @Mohanlal@Shankar_Live #BiswajeetChatterjee pic.twitter.com/3OZgi7elxw

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) April 1, 2021

PM Narendra Modi also took to Twitter to congratulate the superstar on receiving the honour. Addressing him as Thalaiva, he tweeted, “Popular across generations, a body of work few can boast of, diverse roles and an endearing personality…that’s Shri @rajinikanth Ji for you. It is a matter of immense joy that Thalaiva has been conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Congratulations to him.” (sic)

Popular across generations, a body of work few can boast of, diverse roles and an endearing personality…that’s Shri @rajinikanth Ji for you.

It is a matter of immense joy that Thalaiva has been conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Congratulations to him.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 1, 2021

Interestingly, while Rajinikanth has won numerous awards in his career spanning over 40 years, he has never been conferred with a National Award for his performance in any movie so far. He was conferred with a Padma Bhushan in 2000 and a Padma Vibhushan award in 2016. The actor has received only one Filmfare Award in his career – for his performance in the 1984 released film Nallavanukku Nallavan. However, the superstar has bagged the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards seven times out of which six times he was honoured as the Best Actor. The actor is also a recipient of the Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year at the International Film Festival of India that took place in 2014.

Fans showered love on their Thalaiva as soon as the news came out.

By Shivam Urkude || Earth Indian