Mohanlal received a standing ovation as he was conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke award, Indian cinema's highest honour, by President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday.
In his speech, he said, "As a representative of the Malayalam film industry, I am deeply humbled to be the youngest recipient and only the second ever from the state to be bestowed with this national recognition."
While 'Lalettan' is indeed the second recipient of the prestigious award from the Malayalam film industry after Adoor Gopalakrishnan, his claim to being the youngest winner does not stand up to scrutiny.
Mohanlal, who began his movie career as an 18-year-old in 1978, is a relatively young 65, but it's not quite the record.
That distinction goes to the 'Nightingale of India' Lata Mangeshkar who received the Phalke in May 1990 at the age of 60.
In fact, Adoor himself was younger than Mohanlal when he received the award in 2004 at the age of 63.
Another 63-year-old who received the award was Raj Kapoor who was ill and attended the ceremony in an oxygen mask. He was unable to walk up to President Venkataraman, and so the President came to his seat in the audience in a break from protocol. Kapoor passed away a month later.
Lata's movie career had started with a 1942 Marathi movie, so she had already spent 48 years in the movie industry at the time she won the award.
Mohanlal has completed 47 years in the industry, although it should be mentioned that the 1978 movie referred to above -- Thiranottam -- was only released decades later in 2005.
So officially his movie debut came in 1980 with Manjil Virinja Pookkal, in which he played the antagonist.