Bollywood’s veteran actor and politician Mithun Chakraborty received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award at the 70th National Film Awards on Tuesday. The ceremony was held today at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan and the prestigious award was presented by President Droupadi Murmu. He also received Padma Bhushan earlier this year, about that, Mithun wondered why he didn’t receive it earlier when people younger than him got it before. 

This was announced earlier this month and Mithun Chakraborty was elated to receive Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Today he attended the 70th National Film Awards ceremony and while he walked the red carpet he addressed media about receiving the third-highest civilian honour Padma Bhushan earlier this year. 

Speaking to Doordarshan, Mithun said, “I thought everyone was getting the Padma Bhushan, so why not me? People younger than me got before me. I didn’t get it for so long. But now I have finally received it.”

On receiving Dadasaheb Phalke Award, he had earlier 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 worked in more than 350 films in many languages including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and 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 centered on the exploitation of tribals. Mithun would not have even thought that when he would get such a big honour.

For the unversed, 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.