Anant Nag’s Five-Decade Career Honoured With Dadasaheb Phalke Award
Veteran actor Anant Nag was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024 at the 72nd National Film Awards ceremony in Ekta Nagar, Gujarat, on Tuesday, September 22.
The 78-year-old actor received the country’s top cinema honour from President Droupadi Murmu at a ceremony held outside New Delhi for the first time. The award recognises Nag’s contribution to Indian cinema over a career spanning more than five decades.
Nag’s presentation was among the main moments of the ceremony, which brought together actors, filmmakers and technicians being recognised for work associated with Indian cinema in 2024. Reports from the event said Nag received a standing ovation after being honoured.
Speaking after receiving the award, Nag said he felt “very, very lucky and fortunate” to receive the recognition, according to a Times of India report from the ceremony.
A career spanning multiple generations
Born on September 4, 1948, Nag has worked extensively in Kannada cinema while also appearing in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam and English films. He has acted in more than 300 films during his career, with the majority of his work in Kannada cinema.
His screen career began with the Kannada film Sankalpa in 1973, while his work with directors such as Shyam Benegal established him as a prominent performer in India’s parallel cinema movement. He later moved comfortably between art-house films, mainstream productions, and television.
For a wider Indian television audience, Nag is closely associated with Malgudi Days, the acclaimed Doordarshan adaptation of R.K. Narayan’s stories. His filmography has also included more recent commercial cinema, including an appearance in the K.G.F. franchise.
The Government of India announced Nag as the recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award on September 16, saying the honour recognised his “outstanding and invaluable contribution” to the growth and development of Indian cinema. The government said the selection followed the recommendation of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award Selection Committee.
Recognition for Kannada cinema
Nag is the second Kannada actor to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, following Dr Rajkumar, who was honoured in 1995. The recognition therefore also represents a significant moment for Kannada cinema, which has produced several generations of actors, filmmakers and technicians who have contributed to Indian cinema beyond the regional industry.
Nag’s career has crossed several phases of Indian filmmaking, from the parallel cinema of the 1970s to commercial Kannada productions and nationally recognised television work.
The actor was also awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2025. He has previously received five Karnataka State Film Awards.
National Film Awards move beyond Delhi
This year’s National Film Awards ceremony marked a departure from the traditional Delhi venue. The 72nd edition was held at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat, near the Statue of Unity, with the government announcing that future editions would be taken to different states and cities.
The awards recognise achievements in Indian cinema for 2024. Among the major honours presented this year, Article 370 was named Best Feature Film, while Yami Gautam received the Best Actress award for the film.
Mammootty was honoured for his performance in Bramayugam, and Kartik Aaryan for Chandu Champion in the Best Actor category. Rajkumar Periasamy received Best Director for Amaran, while Kalki 2898 AD won the award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.
The ceremony recognised 92 winners across various categories, including feature films, non-feature films and writing on cinema.
A long-awaited career honour
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was announced for Nag in September, but its presentation at the National Film Awards ceremony brought the recognition to its formal conclusion.
For Nag, the honour adds the country’s highest cinema lifetime-achievement recognition to a body of work that has extended across more than five decades and multiple Indian languages.
His acceptance at Ekta Nagar also placed a veteran of Kannada cinema at the centre of a National Film Awards ceremony that itself represented a change in tradition by moving outside the national capital for the first time.
The 72nd National Film Awards recognised films and performances from 2024, while Nag’s Phalke Award celebrated the much longer career that preceded the ceremony.
