52nd Dadasaheb Phalke award

Context:

Veteran actress Asha Parekh has been declared the recipient of the 2020 Dadasaheb Phalke award, making her the 52nd awardee of the honour.

• She is also a recipient of the Padma Shri, awarded to her by the Government of India in 1992 for services to cinema.
  
  

About the Dadasaheb Phalke Award

• The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is part of the National Film Awards, a highly coveted collection of honours in the film industry. 
  • The Award is named after Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, the pioneering filmmaker who gave India its first film– ‘Raja Harishchandra’, in 1913.
• The award is considered the highest honour in the Indian film fraternity. 
• It is awarded for “its outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema.
• The award was instituted by the government in 1969, and consists of a ‘Swarna Kamal’, a cash prize of INR 10 lakh, a certificate, a silk roll, and a shawl.
• The award is presented by the President of India in the presence of the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, the Chairpersons of the juries, the representatives of the Film Federation of India, and the Confederation of All India Cine Employees among senior officials.
• The first recipient of the award was Devika Rani Roerich in 1969.

Who was Dhundiraj Govind ‘Dadasaheb’ Phalke?

• He was born in 1870 at Trimbak in Maharashtra. 
• He studied engineering and sculpture and developed an interest in motion pictures after watching the 1906 silent film The Life of Christ.
• Before venturing into films, Phalke worked as a photographer, owned a printing press, and even worked with the famed painter Raja Ravi Varma.
• In 1913, Phalke wrote, produced, and directed India’s first feature film, the silent Raja Harishchandra. 
  • As a result of its commercial success, Phalke went on to make 95 more films and 26 short films in the next 19 years.
• He is known as the “Father of Indian Cinema”.