Veteran actor Anant Nag has been selected for the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024 in recognition of his more-than-five-decade-long contribution to Indian cinema. The award will be presented at the 72nd National Film Awards ceremony in Kevadia, Gujarat, on 22nd September, 2026.
Anant Nag started his acting career with Kannada and Konkani stage-plays in Bombay. He went on to work in plays by Satyadev Dubey, Girish Karnad and Amol Palekar. He made his film acting debut with Kannada film Sankalpa in 1973. Besides Kannada films, he also worked in several Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam and English films. He has so far worked in more than 300 films — 250 in Kannada, and the remaining in other languages. Anant was often seen in Shyam Benegal’s films. Among Benegal’s films which starred Nag are Ankur (1974), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976), Bhumika (1977), Kondura (1978) and Kalyug (1981). Anant became a household name in the Hindi heartland through Malgudi Days, a TV serial directed by his younger brother, Shankar Nag. He appeared in 13 episodes of the serial.
Anant Nag also dabbled in politics and served as an MLC and MLA before becoming the urban development minister of Bangalore from 1996 to 1999. He also contested the 2004 Karnataka Assembly elections from Chamarajpet on a Janata Dal (Secular) ticket but lost.