Moments after Anant Nag’s name was announced for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the veteran actor responded to a question about the momentous occasion with his trademark wit. In a delightfully matter-of-fact response to reporters, Anant Nag said he “felt normal, was breathing, was alive”, and, as far as he could tell, “nothing else was happening inside his head.”

Perhaps, he had been somewhat prepared, after receiving the Padma Bhushan. Experiencing that excitement and anticipation had prepared him for another major honour.

Fittingly, Anant Nag is the second actor after Dr. Rajkumar to win the country’s highest award in Kannada cinema. The thespian was among the artists who inspired Anant Nag in his early years. Anant Nag has described the legendary actor as his “mundina doni” — the boat that went before him — paving the way for aspiring actors like him. If Anant Nag was in a pond, he once said, Dr. Rajkumar was already in the sea. 

With Benegal, Sathyu

Before establishing himself as a dependable actor in mainstream Kannada film, his acting was shaped by socially-conscious Hindi movies of Shyam Benegal and M.S. Sathyu (Bara). Benegal, who cast Anant Nag in Ankur, Nishanth, and Manthan, was impressed by his ability to express complex emotions with realistic elegance. 

Anant Nag, with an experience of over 50 years, is a self-aware actor. After his early stint with theatre, during which he performed in more than 50 plays across different languages, he made a smooth transition to cinema. In an exclusive interview with The Hindu, the veteran had said that mainstream filmmakers called his subtle portrayal “Bengali style of acting.” Despite these comments, he remained steadfast in his approach. This conviction helped him move effortlessly across roles.

“From Hamsageethe to the Ganesha series, Anant sir’s range is impeccable,” says director Duniya Suri, who worked with the actor in the noir crime drama Kadipuddi’ 

“Popular author Yendamoori Veerendranath had challenged that one of his stories, Venello Adapilla, would be impossible to adapt to cinema. But Sunil Kumar Desai adapted it into a classic film Beladingala Baale (1995). It was Anant sir’s acting that made the adaptation look seamless,” Suri says.

Language ambassador

Wide reading, impeccable pronunciation, and deep respect for the language made Anant Nag more than just an accomplished Kannada actor. “I see him as an ambassador of the Kannada language,” says Yogaraj Bhat, who worked with the actor in the iconic Mungaru Male (2006).

As he grew popular, Anant Nag’s strong dialogue delivery became one of the hallmarks of his acting. “For someone who rose up the ranks delivering lengthy soliloquies in theatre, remembering dialogues wasn’t a great task,” he had told The Hindu. 

The story goes that his famous monologue on saving Kannada government schools during the climax of Rishab Shetty’s hit directorial Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shaale Kasargodu (2019) was a single take.

Ready for risks

Anant Nag was not afraid to take risks, even when he knew a film was ahead of its time. His collaborations with his late brother Shankar Nag, including Accident and Minchina Ota, reflected that instinct — films that ventured beyond the familiar even when their unconventionality made them uncertain bets.

As effortless as he may have come across in humorous roles in the Ganesha series by Phani Ramachandra, the actor had revealed in his interaction with The Hindu that his comic timing came from practice. 

“Delivering a funny line is a careful balance between rushing through it and slowing it down. You have to know how each word will land and the impact it will create.”

In Malgudi Days

For audiences outside Kannada cinema, however, Anant Nag is perhaps best remembered as part of Malgudi Days, the beloved television series directed by Shankar Nag based on R.K. Narayan’s stories. His performances in the series introduced him to viewers across India, adding another dimension to an already remarkably diverse body of work.

Anant Nag reinvented himself by collaborating with new-gen filmmakers. “He is the scientist of acting,” says director K.M. Chaitanya, who collaborated with the actor for his thriller Aatagara (2015). “On camera, it would look like he had done nothing. But when you watch it on the screen, it was pure magic.”

His performance in Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu (2016) as an old man suffering from Alzheimer’s is considered to be one of his all-time best. For filmmakers such as Hemanth Rao, he is an actor who can turn a complex character on the page into a living, breathing presence on screen. He is an actor who remained unique by “doing it his way”.

Published – September 16, 2026 11:30 pm IST

Mithun Chakraborty.
| Photo Credit: ANI

In an industry which foists a new deity every Friday, Mithun Chakraborty’s has been a story of resilience. Announced as the recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award on Monday (September 30, 2024), Mithun Chakraborty has never been a prisoner of image. From arthouse to mainstream commercial cinema to even fare meant unabashedly for frontbenchers, he has straddled different genres with consummate ease.

Beginning with Mrinal Sen’s Mrigayaa in 1976, he has probably been the only major actor to make a successful transition from arthouse cinema to commercial potboilers and back. While Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Om Puri and Smita Patil each dabbled with limited success in mainstream cinema after carving out their own niche in parallel cinema, Mithun is the only one to get a good bite of the cherry.

In parallel cinema, he has worked with the likes of Mrinal Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Goutam Ghose, winning three National Awards in the process. He switched to mainstream fare with the likes of B. Subash, K.C. Bokadia, Manmohan Desai and Parto Ghosh without a hiccup, giving his fans films like Disco Dancer, Dance Dance, Pyar Jhukta Nahin, Ganga Jumna Saraswati, Agneepath and Dalaal, etc. Director B. Subash’s Disco Dancer got Mithun an international fan following with the film raking it rich in the Soviet Union, Japan and China besides India. For a few years in the mid-80s, he was the best-known Indian abroad. At a time when Hindi cinema was dominated by Salim-Javed’s ‘Angry Young Man’ persona, Mithun rewrote the box office rules with Disco Dancer, where Bappi Lahiri’s music and his dance numbers ensured repeat audiences.

For a brief while in the late 80s, he challenged Amitabh Bachchan for the top slot in Hindi cinema, encouraging Desai to give him a meaty role in Ganga Jamunaa Saraswati, a rarity in Hindi cinema where most heroes played second fiddle to Bachchan.

Yet, Mithun’s most durable claim to fame has to be his foray into serious cinema where his work in films like Tahader Katha, Kaalpurush, Swami Vivekanand and Gudiya is still remembered. With his restrained work in arthouse cinema, he disproved the notion that an action hero of Hindi cinema could not pull off neorealism fare. Tahader Katha, Kaalpurush, Swami Vivekanand and Mrigayaa, each one got a National Award giving Mithun his own niche in serious cinema, and making sure his popularity traversed from first-day-first-show to film festival circuit.

There is, however, another aspect of Mithun’s career which has been under-appreciated. He is probably the first A-grade star to work in films specially made for the less-discerning audiences. In the mid-90s, Mithun reworked the economics of cinema by shooting for films exclusively in Ooty with a standard cast comprising the likes of Hemant Birje, Gautami, Deepti Bhatnagar, Kiran Kumar and Raza Murad with music by Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen. The films, made on a shoe-string budget of around ₹40 lakh, were completed within a month or so and released without fanfare at smaller centres. Films like Jallad, Chandaal, Dada, Hitler, The Don and Cheetah were not heard of in metropolises but earned the producers sizeable profit besides keeping Mithun’s hardcore fans in small towns happy. Interestingly, while G.V. Iyer took 11 years to complete the research for Mithun’s Swami Vivekanand, the star meanwhile completed more than 20 films!

In recent times, Mithun has played supporting roles in films like TheKashmir Files and The Tashkent Files, forays which probably went some way in convincing the three-member jury comprising former Dadasaheb awardee Asha Parekh, actor-politician Khushbu Sundar and filmmaker Vipul Amrutlal Shah to select Mithun Chakraborty for the highest honour in Indian cinema.

New Delhi:

Expressing delight at veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty being conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday lauded him as a cultural icon.

In a post on X, PM Modi said, “Delighted that Shri Mithun Chakraborty Ji has been conferred the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award, recognizing his unparalleled contributions to Indian cinema.” “He is a cultural icon, admired across generations for his versatile performances. Congratulations and best wishes to him,” he said.

Mr Chakraborty, star of films such as “Mrigayaa”, “Surakshaa”, “Disco Dancer”, and “Dance Dance”, was on Monday named recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the government’s highest recognition in the field of cinema. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)