The Government of India announced on September 16, 2026, that veteran actor Anant Nag will receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024 — India’s highest honour in cinema — in recognition of his contribution to Indian film and a career spanning more than five decades. The award will be presented at the 72nd National Film Awards ceremony in Kevadia, Gujarat, on September 22, 2026.
A rare honour for Kannada cinema
Anant Nag becomes only the second predominantly Kannada actor to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, following Dr. Rajkumar, who was honoured in 1995. Given that the award has been presented since 1969, this makes the recognition a genuinely rare milestone for the Kannada film industry — one that fans and the industry alike have waited three decades for.
From theatre to parallel cinema: how it began
Born Anant Nagarkatte on September 4, 1948, in Shirali, Uttara Kannada, Nag began his career not in front of the camera but on stage — training in Mumbai’s Marathi and Kannada theatre circuits under figures like Amol Palekar and Satyadev Dubey. He made his feature-film debut in the Kannada film Sankalpa (1973), and the very same year came the film that would define the next phase of his career: Shyam Benegal’s Ankur (1974), opposite Shabana Azmi. That role placed him at the center of India’s parallel cinema movement, and Benegal went on to cast him in two more landmark films, Nishant and Manthan.
A body of work spanning 300+ films
Over more than 50 years, Nag has appeared in over 300 films — more than 250 of them in Kannada, along with roles in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, and English productions. His early Kannada work included acclaimed titles like Ghatashraddha (1977) and Bayaludari (1976), and his performance in Naa Ninna Bidalaare (1979) won him his first Filmfare Award South for Best Actor. He picked up multiple Karnataka State Film Awards through the 1980s and ’90s for films including Hosa Neeru and Avasthe.
Malgudi Days: the role that made him a household name beyond Karnataka
For audiences outside Karnataka, Nag is perhaps best remembered for Malgudi Days (1987) — the Doordarshan television adaptation of R.K. Narayan’s short stories, directed by his younger brother, the late Shankar Nag. The show became a cultural landmark across India, and Nag’s performance across its many characters introduced him to a generation of viewers who had never seen a Kannada film.
Still going strong in his 70s
Rather than slowing down, Nag has continued working steadily into recent years, appearing in Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu (2016) — which won him another Filmfare South award, this time for a widely praised portrayal of a man living with Alzheimer’s — as well as K.G.F: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, 777 Charlie, and Mandala: The UFO Incident (2023), introducing his work to an entirely new generation of Kannada cinema audiences.
Recognition that builds on recent honours
The Phalke award comes less than a year after Nag received the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour, in 2025. Speaking to PTI after the announcement, Nag said he hadn’t expected to receive the country’s top cinema honour, and credited changes to the award selection process for opening it up to public recommendations — calling the earlier process affected by “nepotism and favouritism.”
