Ahead of Diwali, the Tamil cinema fans would be served with what would be their lifetime moment and the Kollywood industry can pat itself for witnessing a glorifying legacy where the Superstar and the Asuran of Kollywood would be bestowed with the national honour on the same stage. 

Superstar Rajinikanth and his son-in-law, Asuran of Kollywood, Dhanush will be receiving national awards on the same stage next week. The National Award ceremony will be taking place in Delhi on October 25 and while Rajinikanth receives Dadasahed Phalke Award, Dhanush will be conferred with the national award for best acting. Adding another feather to his cap of achievements, Rajinikanth will be receiving Dadasaheb Phalke Award, which is India's highest award in cinema. The Union government has announced the award for the actor this year April.

While it was announced that the award will be bestowed on him on May 3, the event has got deferred in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Rajinikanth will be receiving the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award and the then Union Minister Prakash Javedkar had in April announced that the Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2019 will be awarded to one of the greatest actors in the history of Indian cinema Rajnikant ji. His contribution as actor, producer and screenwriter has been iconic. The award, which also is termed as the cinema's Bharat Ratna for being the highest honour of the Indian cinema, is presented by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting under the Directorate of Film Festivals. 

Rajinikanth has been active since 1975 and through his immense contribution to the cinema industry, he has earned a huge reputation across and beyond the borders for displaying the richness in acting and commitment towards the growth of the industry. Besides being one of the highest-paid Indian actors, Rajinikanth will be one among the handful of actors who had earned ardent fans overseas, which captured how he has been celebrated across the globe. Rajinikanth had etched a different path in the cinema industry through his unique style of acting, to which he had dedicated his life. Through acting in some of the blockbuster hits, the superstar has become an iconic actor of Indian cinema.

Rajinikanth had received several awards. He had received the Kalaimamani award in 1984 and the MGR award in 1989, both from the Tamil Nadu Government. In 2000, Rajinikanth was honoured with the Padma Bhushan award, which is India's third-highest civilian honour and he had received India's second-highest civilian honour Padma Vibhushan in 2016. In the year 2014, he was presented with the 'Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year' at the 45th International Film Festival of India. Now, he will be receiving Dadasaheb Phalke Award, which is India's highest honour in cinema. 

The award was first presented by the Government of India in the year 1969 to commemorate Dadasaheb Phalke's contribution to Indian cinema. It is presented annually at the National Film Awards ceremony by the Directorate of Film Festivals under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The recipient is honoured for their outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema and is selected by a committee consisting of eminent personalities from the Indian film industry.  

The previous recipients were Devika Rani (1969), Prithviraj Kapoor (1971), Satyajit Ray (1984), Raj Kapoor (1987), Lata Mangeshkar (1989), Dilip Kumar (1994), Rajkumar (1995), Sivaji Ganesan (1996), Asha Bhosle (2000), Yash Chopra (2001), Adoor Gopalakrishnan (2004), K Balachander (2010), Soumitra Chatterjee (2011), Shashi Kapoor (2014), K Viswanath (2016), Vinod Khanna (2017), and Amitabh Bachchan (2018). Rajinikanth will now be receiving the award for 2019 and Rajinikanth is the second Tamil actor after Sivaji Ganesan to receive the honour.  

When the award was announced to Rajinikanth, Prime Minister Modi had called the actor 'Thalaiva' and said, "It is a matter of immense joy that Thalaiva has been conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Congratulations to him." Reacting to the announcement, Rajinikanth wrote on social media, "My heartfelt thanks to the government of India, respected & dearest @narendramodi ji, @PrakashJavdekar ji and the jury for conferring upon me the prestigious #DadasahebPhalkeAward I sincerely dedicate it to all those who have been a part of my journey. Thanks to the almighty." 

While the event has been deferred in light of the pandemic, it was recently announced that the award ceremony will be held on October 25 in Delhi during which Rajinikanth will be bestowed with the honour. Joining the stage with the Superstar is his son-in-law Dhanush, who will be receiving the National Award for the Best Actor in 2019 for the movie 'Asuran' and the movie will also be conferred with the National Award for the Best Tamil film. The 67th National Film Awards for the movies in 2019  were released in March this year and the event will be honouring the movies and artists who had done extraordinarily well in 2019. 

The event must have been held in 2020. However, it was postponed in the wake of the pandemic. The stage is now being set in Delhi to honour the artists. Asuran has been named as the Best Tamil film while Dhanush has been named as the Best Actor in Tamil. The movie, which was directed by Vetrimaaran, was a blockbuster hit and gave a crucial push to Dhanush in his cinematic career. After being named as the Best Actor, Dhanush, in an emotional letter, has said, "To win one best actor award is a dream, to win Two is nothing short of a blessing, I never imagined I would come this far. There are a lot of people to thank, but just gonna state a few. As always, I thank my mother and father, my guru my brother first". As the Superstar and Asuran will receive the national honour on the same stage, Tamil fans are waiting for this big moment.