Bollwood’s Veteran actor and politician Mithun Chakraborty will be awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, adding another important achievement to his name. Mithun Chakraborty expressed happiness on winning the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and said, I never thought that a boy from the footpath could receive such a big honour.

Mithun, who made everyone crazy with his style in the 90s, used to wash taxis in Mumbai. He spent many nights sleeping on an empty stomach. Not only this, even after entering the film industry, he faced insults many times regarding his colour. Mithun is currently in Kolkata for the shooting of a film. He said, “A person who was literally nothing, who had no name, achieved all this. I always tell my fans and financially weak people, if I can make it, you can also do it. I dedicate this honour to my family and my fans all over the world.” Mithun has told the story of his struggles on many occasions in the past and said that he had to face insults many times in the 70s and 80s because of his skin colour. He says that during his days of struggle, he had to spend many nights on the road and many times he did not understand when and how he would get food.

Mithun has worked in more than 350 films in many languages including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu in his film career, but he introduced his acting ability from his very first film. He started acting with Mrinal Sen's film Mrigaya, which was centred on the exploitation of tribals. Mithun would not have even thought that when he would get such a big honour, he would not be able to accept even the bouquet properly. Actually, his hand is fractured and he is shooting a Bengali film in Kolkata with a broken hand.

Mithun is the only actor to win a National Award for his first film. His first film was Mrigaya, which came in 1976, for which he won the National Award for Best Actor. He won the National Award for Best Actor for the 1993 film Tahader Katha and Best Supporting Actor for his role as Swami Ramakrishna in Swami Vivekananda in 1996. In January this year, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the country's third highest civilian honour.