Anant Nag Wins Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Second Kannada Actor After Rajkumar

Veteran Kannada actor Anant Nag has been named for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the country's highest honour in cinema. He is the second actor from Kannada cinema to receive the award, after the legendary Dr. Rajkumar.

Reacting to the announcement, Anant Nag met the news with his characteristic humour. Asked about the moment, he told reporters he felt normal, was breathing and was alive, adding that as far as he could tell nothing else was happening inside his head. He had, perhaps, been somewhat prepared for the recognition after receiving the Padma Bhushan, an experience that had readied him for another major honour.

Anant Nag has often spoken of Dr. Rajkumar as an early inspiration, describing the thespian as his mundina doni — the boat that went before him — which paved the way for aspiring actors. If he himself was in a pond, he once said, Dr. Rajkumar was already in the sea.

His career of more than five decades began in theatre, where he performed in over 50 plays across different languages before moving to cinema. His early screen work was shaped by the socially conscious Hindi films of Shyam Benegal and M.S. Sathyu. Benegal cast him in Ankur, Nishanth and Manthan, impressed by his ability to express complex emotions with realistic elegance.

Anant Nag has described himself as a self-aware actor. In an interview, he recalled that mainstream filmmakers called his subtle style "Bengali style of acting", but he remained steadfast in his approach — a conviction that helped him move effortlessly across roles.

Filmmakers who have worked with him point to his range. Director Duniya Suri, who directed him in the noir crime drama Kadipuddi, said his range from Hamsageethe to the Ganesha series was impeccable. Suri also noted that while author Yendamoori Veerendranath had challenged that his story Venello Adapilla could not be adapted to cinema, Sunil Kumar Desai turned it into the classic Beladingala Baale (1995), with Anant Nag's acting making the adaptation look seamless.

Wide reading, precise pronunciation and respect for the language made him more than an accomplished Kannada actor. Director Yogaraj Bhat, who worked with him in Mungaru Male (2006), described him as an ambassador of the Kannada language. His strong dialogue delivery became a hallmark; having risen through theatre delivering lengthy soliloquies, remembering dialogues was not a great task, he once said. His famous monologue on saving Kannada government schools in the climax of Rishab Shetty's Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shaale Kasargodu (2019) is said to have been filmed in a single take.

He was also unafraid of risk. His collaborations with his late brother Shankar Nag, including Accident and Minchina Ota, ventured beyond the familiar even when their unconventionality made them uncertain bets. His comic timing in Phani Ramachandra's Ganesha series appeared effortless, but he revealed it came from practice — delivering a funny line, he said, is a careful balance between rushing and slowing down, knowing how each word will land.

For audiences outside Kannada cinema, he is perhaps best remembered for Malgudi Days, the television series directed by Shankar Nag and based on R.K. Narayan's stories, which introduced him to viewers across India.

He later reinvented himself by working with a new generation of filmmakers. Director K.M. Chaitanya, who collaborated with him on the thriller Aatagara (2015), called him a scientist of acting, noting that on camera it would seem he had done nothing, yet on screen it was pure magic. His performance in Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu (2016) as an old man with Alzheimer's is considered among his 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 — unique for doing it his way.