Bengaluru | Veteran Kannada actor Anant Nag, who is the recipient for the 2024 Dadasaheb Phalke Award, has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for changing the system of award selection that was earlier influenced by "nepotism" and "favouritism".
Nag said he was grateful to Modi for announcing the award and dedicated the honour to the people of Karnataka. The award, to be given during the National Film Awards ceremony in Kevadia, Gujarat on September 22, were announced on Wednesday.
"Otherwise, it was a very special category, you know; it was given (through) nepotism and favouritism, and everything was there in this award-giving. But Modi changed it," Nag told PTI Videos.
He said Modi had sought public recommendations for the Padma Awards, prompting Kannadigas to recommend his name.
"Modi was the only person who asked people to please recommend the name they had in their mind. That was the first time he brought it out into the public," he said.
Nag said he had not anticipated receiving the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and was still coming to terms with the honour.
"Well, I didn't anticipate that I would be given this Phalke Award, as such. So, I'm trying to come to terms with it. I would dedicate it to the people of Karnataka, and then thank Mr Modi, our dear Prime Minister, for this-because he tweeted it and announced this particular award. So I'm grateful to him, and grateful to this country which has provided me this opportunity," Nag said, referring to Modi's post on X where the PM called him "a truly distinguished artist".
Nag, who has completed 50 years as an actor, said he had never expected awards but valued the support of people who admired his work.
"I've never been in that culture of expecting an award. Reward, yes, anytime. But an award, I was not told," he said.
The actor said he did not have fan associations but acknowledged the people who had supported his career.
"I wouldn't say they are my fans, because I don't have fan associations and all. But I have people who admire my work and who have blessed me, supported me in my 50-year career as an actor," he said.
Asked about his advice for youngsters entering the film industry, Nag said they needed to work hard and please the audience.
"They have to work hard, yes. If you want to be successful in cinema, in entertainment, you have to work very hard and then please the audience," he said.
Nag said he was reluctant to travel and was yet to confirm whether he would attend the award ceremony.
"If I'm asked to, then I cannot say no. When they've conferred such a big award on me, then I should go to it and take it," he said.
Nag said the recognition was an opportunity to celebrate India's diverse film industries and the country's love for cinema across languages.
"This country has so many languages, and so many films are made in. And everybody-the other day I was reading a newspaper, it just said that people from abroad, they come and-the kind of craze for cinema which is there in India, in all languages, in all states, is not there anywhere else in the world, not even in Hollywood," he said.
Nag has acted in more than 270 films, mainly in Kannada and a few in Hindi, during his five-decade career in the film industry.
The 78-year-old is also a renowned theatre personality.
Nag grew up in a religious family in Bhatkal in coastal Karnataka and was sent to Mumbai for higher education. His early exposure to literature and storytelling shaped his interest in the arts. While in Mumbai, he gradually became drawn to the city's theatre movement.
Nag acted in Konkani, Hindi and Marathi plays for about five years, during which he came under the influence of theatre personalities such as Satyadev Dubey, Girish Karnad and Amol Palekar.
He made his cinema debut with the 1973 Kannada film 'Sankalpa' and gradually became an integral part of the parallel cinema movement in the 1970s and 1980s.
He was part of the popular Doordarshan serial 'Malgudi Days', the television adaptation of R K Narayan's works, which was directed by his filmmaker brother Shankar Nag.
Anant Nag, who served as a Bengaluru Development Minister in Karnataka's J H Patel government, has spoken about being influenced by the JP movement at its peak. In 2004, he unsuccessfully contested the Chamarajpet Assembly constituency in Bengaluru on a Janata Dal (Secular) ticket.
'Bayalu Daari', 'Na Ninna Bidalaare', 'Gauri Ganesha', 'Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu' and 'KGF Chapter-1' are among his prominent Kannada films.
He played key roles in Hindi parallel cinema films such as 'Ankur', 'Nishant', 'Manthan', 'Bhumika', 'Kondura', 'Kalyug' and 'Gehrayee'.
The previous recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was Malayalam superstar Mohanlal. The award being announced for 2024 is part of the delayed schedule of the National Film Awards.
Instituted in 1969, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award honours the contribution of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, widely regarded as the father of Indian cinema, who directed the country's first full-length feature film, 'Raja Harishchandra', in 1913.
