South Star Rajinikanth received his Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest film honour, from Vice President Venkaiah Naidu at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan today. The superstar, who used to work as a bus conductor before entering film industry, dedicated the award to his old bus driver friend, who suggested that he join films. He also dedicated his Dadasaheb Phalke Award to late filmmaker K Balachander, who directed Rajinikanth’s first film Apoorva Raagangal, his brother Sathyanarayana Rao and his “directors, producers, theatre owners, technicians and fans.” He attended the ceremony with his son-in-law Dhanush, who won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in Asuran. Rajinikanth’s wife Latha and their daughter Aishwarya, who is married to Dhanush, were also there.

A jury made up of singers Asha Bhosle and Shankar Mahadevan, actors Mohanlal and Biswajeet Chatterjee and filmmaker Subhash Ghai had selected Rajinikanth for the honour earlier this year.  At the National Film Awards today, actor Biswajit Chatterjee said they selected Rajinikanth for the honour because he is a “talented” person and very “down to earth.” 

On Sunday, Rajinikanth shared a statement on Twitter about receiving the award and called it one of the “two special landmarks” – the other one being his daughter Soundarya Vishagan’s new app named Hoote, which is to be launched this evening. In his statement, Rajinikanth wrote: “Tomorrow is an important occasion for me with two special landmarks. One, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, being conferred upon me by the Government of India because of the love and support of the people.”

Rajinikanth is known for his blockbuster performances in films such as Sivaji, Enthiran, Nallavanuku Nallavan, Thalapathy, Annamalai, Sri Raghavendra, Peddarayudu, Chandramukhi, Nattukku Oru Nallavan, Darbar and Baasha.