CHENNAI: There are superstars and then there is Rajinikanth. The stylish actor, born Shivajirao Gaekwad, who has earned himself a demi-God status with his inimitable on-screen mannerisms and per-formances, will be presented the prestigeous Dada Saheb Phalke Award, the highest honour for an artiste in Indian cinema, for the year 2019, on May 3.
Rajinikanth will be the fourth star from South Indian cinema after Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Sivaji Ganesan, and Dr Rajkumar to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke award. The actor now joins an illustrious list of film personalities to have been con-ferred this award, including his mentor K Balachander, Satyajit Ray, Amitabh Bachchan, Raj Ka-poor, Dilip Kumar, Gulzar, Lata Mangeshkar, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, and K Vishwanath.
Union Information and Broad-casting Minister Prakash Java-dekar, who made the announce-ment on Thursday, said, “A jury consisting of Asha Bhonsle, Mo-hanlal, Biswajit Chatterjee, Shankar Mahadevan and Subhash Ghai unanimously decided to nominate Rajinikanth for the award, and we have accepted the nomination. For the last 50-odd years, he has been the un-crowned king of cinema.”
Minister Prakash Javadekar added, “Through his charisma, his talent and efforts, he has made a place for himself in the hearts of the people.”
Having started his career with a cameo in K Balachander’s ‘apoorva Raagangal’ (1975), Rajinikanth has gone on to act in over 160 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, and english lan-guages. Tasting success as a stylish antagonist in many landmark films, including Aadu Puli Aatam, 16 Vayathin-ile, and Moondru Mudichu, Rajinikanth made the transition to ‘hero’ roles with Bairavi (1978), which was also the first film to give him the Superstarsobriquet that would later be-come so iconic. he further ce-mented his hero status with the Mahendran drama, Mullum Malarum, in which he played a gritty winch operator who suffers a tragic accident. Known for style and charisma, Rajinikanth’s box office success even resulted in many established production houses like aVM and Vijaya Vauhini studios, returning from a sabbatical to do films again.
Fondly called ‘Thalaivar’ by his fans, Rajinikanth’s 100th film was Sri Raghavendra, which saw him explore his spiritual side for the first time.
In a career which saw few difficult stretches, the actor, over the last decade, has truly become a pan India phenomenon.