National Awards: Waheeda Rehman Receives Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Felicitated by President Murmu

National Awards: Apart from Waheeda Rehman, Alia Bhatt, Kriti Sanon, Allu Arjun, R. Madhavan, director Karan Johar, and SS Rajamouli were also present at the event.

Indian cinema’s iconic screen star, Waheeda Rehman, received the most prestigious award on Tuesday at the Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi. Waheeda Rehman was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Lifetime Achievement Award at the 69th National Awards. It was felicitated by India’s President, Draupadi Murmu.

After achieving this prestigious award, Waheeda Ji has now become the 8th female artist to receive India’s highest award in the film industry. Before her, Devika Rani (1969), Sulochana (1973), Kanan Devi (1976), Durga Khote (1983), Lata Mangeshkar (1989), Asha Bhosle (2000), and Asha Parekh (2020) were honoured with the award.

Waheeda Rehman while receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. 

While accepting the honour, Rehman addressed the crowd and said that she felt very honoured and humbled, but whatever she achieved today, it was because of her dear film industry. She further said that she is lucky to get to work with top directors, producers, filmmakers, technicians, writers, dialogue writers, music directors, and musicians.

Allu Arjun with Alia Bhatt and Kriti Sanon. 

She got a lot of support, respect, and love from all of them. She also gave credit to her makeup artists, hairdressers, and costume designers. This is why she said she would share her award with all the departments of the film industry. She concluded her speech by saying that the whole fraternity has given her a lot of respect, support, and love from the very beginning, and a film is not made by just one person; we need each other.

R. Madhavan’s Rocketry: The Nambi Effect won Best Film at the 69th National Film Award. 

Rehman debuted in Hindi films from Guru Dutt’s CID in 1956, and after that, she has done many movies like Pyaasa, Guide, Kaagaz Ke Phool, and Khamoshi, which gave her wide recognition all over the world. Rehman was also honoured with the National Award for Best Actress, Padma Shri, and Padma Bhushan.

Karan Johar shares his gratitude after receiving the Special Jury Award at National Award. 

Along with Rehman, Alia Bhatt, and Kriti Sanon received the Best Actress award for Gangubai Kathiawadi and Mimi respectively, Pallavi Joshi and Pankaj Tripathi received awards in the Supporting Actor / Actress category, Allu Arjun as Best Actor for Pushpa, R Madhavan for Rocketry in the Best Film Category, Karan Johar and Vishnuvardhan won awards for Shershaah, and Vicky Kaushal’s Sardar Uddham won Best Feature Film in Hindi with four more National Awards in different categories.

Winner of the 69th National Film Award with India’s President Draupadi Murmu. 

Apart from all these honours, Shreya Ghosal won her 5th National Award for Best Singer at the 69th National Award for Maayava Chaayava in Tamil. She won her first national award at the age of 18 for Bairi Piya from the movie ‘Devdas’.

The winners of the 69th National Award were announced in August 2023, and the event was held on Tuesday, October 17, at the Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi, where the awards were presented by President Draupadi Murmu along with I&B Minister Anurag Thakur.