Mumbai: Bollywood's legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan who had earlier been awarded the Padma Vibhushan award will now be honoured with Dada Saheb Phalke award, this year.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday has announced the news on social media.
Sharing the same, he wrote on Twitter: "The legend Amitabh Bachchan who entertained and inspired for 2 generations has been selected unanimously for #DadaSahabPhalke award."
He further added: "The entire country and international community is happy. My heartiest Congratulations to him."
As the news of Bachchan's latest glory surface on the internet, Bollywood celebrities including Karan Johar, Anil Kapoor and Madhur Bhandarkar among others congratulated him.
The 76-year-old actor had earlier been bestowed with several National Awards and Civilian Awards including Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan among others.
Through a career spanning over five decades, the actor has inspired generations with his diverse work.
From being an angry young man to the Shahenshah of Bollywood, Bachchan has become one of the most recognisable faces of the Indian cinema.
The actor started his journey with Saat Hindustani. He then went on to feature in Anand starring Rajesh Khanna.
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He rose to fame with Prakash Mehra's 1973 hit Zanjeer. Since then there was no looking back. His angry young man avatar was celebrated by one and all.
Some of his films like Deewaar, Don and Sholay are still popular among his fans. Audiences too have appreciated his intense screen presence in films like Black, Paa and Piku.
From touching the pinnacle of stardom to facing failure Big B has seen it all.
In other news, senior Bachchan has a series of interesting projects coming up. He has got Chehre, Gulabo Sitabo, Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, Brahmastra and Aankhen 2 in the pipeline.
