Do you know that what is highest honour for any person who is working in film industry, be it in film industry based in any part of the country and making films of any language. This award was instituted by Govt. of India in the memory of the person who produced first silent film in India. The award is named “ Dada Saheb Phalke Award” and its is given to a person who has achieved excellence in some aspect of film making.
In this blog I am giving below the list of people from Bollywood( Hindi film industry), who have won this award
1 1969 Devika Rani– She was actress, director and studio owner in 1930s and 1940s.
2 1971 Prithviraj Kapoor– He was awarded this award posthumously. He was an actor, owner of Prithvi Theatre, a drama company, which gave many film makers to Bollywood.
3 1972 Pankaj Mullick– He was music composer/singer/actor, and his main work was 1930s & 1940s. He worked in Hindi and Bengali films.
4 1973 Ruby Meyers (Sulochna)- She was actress, and her main work was in 1930s, 40s and early 5os.
5 1977 Nitin Bose– He was cinematographer/director/screenplay writer, worked in Hindi and Bengali films.
6 1978 RC Boral– He was music composer, and he worked in 1930s and 1940s, worked in Hindi and Bengali films.
7 1978 Sohrab Modi- He was Actor/Producer/Director/Studio Owner.His working tenure was from 1930s to 1960s.
9 1979 P Jairaj- Actor/Director. He started his career in 1930s and continued till 1970s.
10 1981 Naushad– Music Composer. His career started in 1940s and he worked till early 1980s.
11 1982 LV Prasad– Actor/Producer/Director. He worked in Telugu,Tamil and Hindi films.
12 1983 Durga Khote-Actress. She started her career in 1930s and continued till early 80s, worked in Hindi and Marathi films.
13 1985 V Shantaram– Actor/Producer/Director. He started his career in 1930s and continued to early 1980s.
14 1987 Raj Kapoor-Actor/Producer/Director/Studio Owner. He started working in 1940s and was working till his death in 1988. He was known as Showman in Bollywood.
15 1988 Ashok Kumar- Actor/Producer/Studio Owner. He started his work in 1930s and worked till 1980s. He was fondly called Dada Muni.
16 1989 Lata Mangeshkar– Playback Singer/Producer. She started her career in late 1940s and worked till 2000s. Other than Hindi she has sung songs in many other languages.
17 1992 Majrooh Sultanpuri– Lyricist. He started working in 1940s, and worked for more than 55 years.
18 1994 Dilip Kumar– Actor par excellence. He started working in 1940s, and worked till early 90s. It has been all the actor who have come after him, some way or other adopted his acting style.
19 1997 Kavi Pradeep– Lyricist. He was in real sense a poet and for certain type of realistic songs he became very famous. Who can forget his song “Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon, zara Ankh Mein Bharlo Paani”
20 1998 BR Chopra– Producer/Director/Writer. He started working in 1940 and worked till 90s.He produced and directed India’s most famous TV serial Mahabharat.
21 1999 Hrishikesh Mukherjee– Editor/Director/Produce. He started his career in early 1950s and worked for almost 4 decades.
22 2000 Asha Bhosle– Play Back singer. She started in late 40s and was working till early 2010s. Along with Hindi, she has sung songs in many other languages including English.
23 2001 Yash Chopra– Producer/Director/Studio Owner. He started working in late 1950s and working till his death in 2012.
24 2002 Dev Anand– Actor/Producer/Director/Writer. He started his career in late 1940s and working till his death in early 2000s.
25 2005 Shyam Benegal-Producer/Director. He was pioneer of new age cinema in Hindi with film Ankur in 1974.
26 2007 Manna Dey– Playback Singer. Known as best singer for classical based songs. He started his career in late 40s and worked for next 5 decades.
27 2008- VK Murthy– Cinematographer. He was the first and only person till date from technical aspect of film making who has received this award. It was Guru Dutt who launched him in early 50s and he worked for 4 decades.
28 2012 Pran– He started his career in 40s, till 1967 he used to play mainly villain role. With Upkaar he switched over to character roles From acting field he is the only person who has never played a conventional hero’s role in Hindi films, and won this award.
29 2013 Gulzar– Poet/Lyricist/Writer/Director. He started his career as lyricist in 1963 with film Bandini .Later on turned to writing and direction. As a lyricist he is still active.
30 2014 Shashi Kapoor– Actor/Producer. He started his career as actor in 1960, although as a child artist he had acted earlier in few films. He worked for almost 4 decades.
31 2015 Manoj Kumar- Actor/Producer/Director/Writer. He started his acting career in 1960. Later on he turned to writing and direction. He was actively working for almost 4 decades.
32 2017 Vinod Khanna– Actor.He was also awarded this award Posthumously. He started his career in 1967 as villain, and later turned to lead roles as hero. In early 80s for few years he left the industry and went to Rajneesh Ashram in USA but later rejoined, and was almost working till his death in early 2017.
33 2018 Amitabh Bachchan– Actor. India has never seen a bigger star than him. He started his career in 1970. In early 90s he took a break to evaluate himself because as a leading man his career was getting over. In 2000 he staged a come back as character actor and TV host after that he never looked back. Now also at the age of almost 79 years he is still working.
So above was list of people from Hindi film industry who won this award. In my opinion noted omission from this list are Mohd Rafi (Singer), Kishore Kumar (actor/singer/producer/director/composer), Rajesh Khanna (actor) the first Indian superstar, Dharmendra (actor) who for last 60 years is still working, Sahir Ludhianavi (lyricist) and there are no actress in this list starting from 1950s till now. And what about Shankar jaikishan, Laxmikant Pyarelal and RD Burman.
Waiting for your comments/views/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
4th September 2020
R. N. Mungale.
Good that Mr. Malik has pointed out notable personalities who didn’t get this award.