Punjab, Sept. 22 -- Anant Nag received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award from President Droupadi Murmu at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat on Tuesday, to a standing ovation. 92 winners were honoured across categories, at the first National Film Awards ceremony held outside Delhi in seventy-two years.
The ovation
Standing ovations at state ceremonies are usually protocol. This one was not - it came for an actor whose career sits almost entirely inside Kannada cinema, in a hall full of people from every other industry.
That is the thing worth recording about the evening. The Phalke has often gone to figures made nationally familiar through Hindi film; the room stood for one who was not.
The headline winners
The awards cover films certified in 2024. The wi...