Dadasaheb Phalke Birth Anniversary: List of Dadasaheb Phalke Award Recipients Over The Years

DADASAHEB PHALKE BIRTH ANNIVERSARY: Born on April 30, 1870, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke came from a small town in Bombay Presidency. Known as Dadasaheb Phalke, he was director, producer screenwriter, editor and distributor. He is regarded as the Father of Indian Cinema for giving the country its first full-length feature film. The indigenous silent film was titled, Raja Harishchandra (1913).

In a 19-year-career span, he worked on 95 feature films and 27 short films. His last film, Gangavataran (1937) was the only film made by Dadasaheb with sound and dialogues.

After his death in 1944, the Government of India initiated an award on his name titled The Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1969. It is the highest award for film personalities in the country to recognize valuable contribution in Indian cinema’s development. In 1971, India post released a stamp bearing Dadasaheb’s character in his reverence.

Here are the winners of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award since its inception in 1969. Devika Rani was the first recipient of the prestigious award.

1. Devika Rani (1969)
2. Birendranath Sircar
3. Prithviraj Kapoor
4. Pankaj Mullick
5. Ruby Myers (Sulochana)
6. B. N. Reddy
7. Dhirendra Nath Ganguly
8. Kanan Devi
9. Nitin Bose
10. Raichand Boral
11. Sohrab Modi
12. Paidi Jairaj
13. Naushad
14. L. V. Prasad
15. Durga Khote
16. Satyajit Ray
17. V. Shantaram
18. B. Nagi Reddy
19. Raj Kapoor
20. Ashok Kumar
21. Lata Mangeshkar
22. Akkineni Nageswara Rao
23. Bhalji Pendharkar
24. Bhupen Hazarika
25. Majrooh Sultanpuri
26. Dilip Kumar
27. Rajkumar
28. Sivaji Ganesan
29. Kavi Pradeep
30. B. R. Chopra
31. Hrishikesh Mukherjee
32. Asha Bhosle
33. Yash Chopra
34. Dev Anand
35. Mrinal Sen
36. Adoor Gopalakrishnan
37. Shyam Benegal
38. Tapan Sinha
39. Manna Dey
40. V. K. Murthy
41. D. Ramanaidu
42. K. Balachander
43. Soumitra Chatterjee
44. Pran
45. Gulzar
46. Shashi Kapoor
47. Manoj Kumar
48. K. Viswanath
49. Vinod Khanna
50. Amitabh Bachchan
51. Rajinikanth
52. Asha Parekh

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was not awarded in the years 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.