The 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will honour superstar Rajinikanth with a special Icon of Golden Jubilee award, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar announced today.
The festival will be held in Goa from 20 to 28 November with close to 250 films from various countries to be screened at the premier movie extravaganza. The Minister also announced celebrated French actor Isabelle Huppert as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.
In its golden jubilee year, the festival will screen 50 films by 50 female filmmakers to acknowledge the contribution of women in cinema, Javadekar said.
Russia will be the partner country at the festival this year. Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner Amitabh Bachchan’s selected seven or eight films will also be showcased at the movie gala.
Javadekar tweeted, “In recognition of his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema, during the past several decades, I am happy to announce that the award for the ICON OF GOLDEN JUBILEE OF #IFFI2019 is being conferred on cine star Shri S Rajnikant.” At the 45th edition of IFFI in 2014, he was conferred with the “Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year.”
Meanwhile, Rajinikanth thanked the government for the honour. He tweeted, “I thank the government of India for this prestigious honour bestowed upon me on the golden jubilee of the International film festival of India.”
From conductor to mass hero
Born as Shivaji Rao Gaekwad in 1950, he was rechristened as Rajinikanth by his mentor K Balachander. He began acting in plays while working in the Bangalore Transport Service as a bus conductor.
In 1973, he joined the Madras Film Institute to pursue a diploma in acting. Following his debut in K Balachander’s 1975 Tamil drama Apoorva Raagangal, his acting career commenced with a brief phase of portraying antagonistic characters in Tamil films.
In his career spanning 45 years, he rose to become the top paid actor in Asia with successive hits. Rajinikanth has won six Tamilnadu State Film Awards – four Best Actor Awards. Known as philanthropist and a spiritualist, the Government of India has honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2000 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2016. He is currently busy with Darbar directed by A R Murugadoss and a film to be helmed by Siva. Rajini is expected to float his political party soon. Fans and film personalities have been congratulating him for the latest honour by the Centre.